


you know you love me

by kikimateohytes



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: F/F, Gossip Girl AU, Lesbian AU, Mutual Pining, Rich Girl AU, Useless Lesbians, kinda slow burn idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:50:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26500183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kikimateohytes/pseuds/kikimateohytes
Summary: Brooke Lynn Hytes returns to New York City after being shipped off to boarding school and her ex best friend, Vanessa Mateo, isn't too happy about it...which would be bad enough, but add in the fact that they're lowkey in love with each other.(Gossip Girl AU)
Relationships: Brooke Lynn Hytes/Vanessa Vanjie Mateo
Comments: 75
Kudos: 31





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaah I can't believe I'm finally posting this!! I apologise for the inevitable spelling/grammar mistakes but I'm absolute trash for Gossip Girl (i probably rewatch it more than is healthy) and needed to see a Branjie version of it. Here's hoping you don't hate it! <3

Hey Upper East Siders, Gossip Girl here. And I have the biggest news ever. Spotted at Grand Central, bags in hand: Brooke Lynn Hytes. Was it only a year ago our It Girl mysteriously disappeared for “boarding school”? And just as suddenly, she’s back. Don’t believe me? See for yourselves. XOXO, Gossip Girl. 

\---

The bright yellow cab pulled into the valet parking area quite quickly after leaving Grand Central Station. As Brooke Lynn Hytes went to reach for the door, she found that it was already opened for her, the concierge staff of the luxurious Palace Hotel never letting their guests lift a finger. To her left, she saw that her suitcases had been removed from the car and after she paid the driver, the doorman was already holding the door open for her, ready for her arrival. 

“Welcome Back, Miss Brooke”, said Vanya, one of the hotels employees who had been taking care of Brooke’s family for years. 

“Thanks, Vanya”, Brooke replied as she quickly walked to the elevator and immediately pressed the button for the Penthouse Suite. It had been a year since she had left for boarding school and although her mother had come to visit her once or twice throughout the school year, she had missed her a lot. She missed the fast-paced life that living in New York City had to offer compared to the boring life she had led in her boarding school in Connecticut. She missed her apartment, her bed, her friends and surprisingly, her school. But right now, all she wanted was to spend some time with her mom and catch up on everything she had missed. 

The elevator doors opened and Brooke was greeted with a completely different apartment to the one she had left behind. The bright red couch, the colourful art pieces on the wall and the bright painted walls were all gone. Found in their place were boring and bland grey furniture that made Brooke feel like she was back at boarding school. 

“Brooke Lynn, honey, you’re home!” Mrs Hytes announced as she immediately embraced her daughter in a tight hug. Brooke Lynn responded by hugging her mom back even tighter, inhaling the scent of her Chanel No. 5 perfume as if it were the oxygen she needed in her lungs to stay alive. As they pulled away, Brooke could feel her mother eyeing her up and down, clearly judging the casual outfit of jeans and converse that she had thrown on when packing up this morning. 

“I…like what you’ve done with the place, Mom, it’s very…different”, Brooke lied as she looked at one of the newer pieces of art on the wall, a picture of the Manhattan skyline, trying to distract her mom from nagging her about her outfit choice. Not everyone had the energy to wear a blazer, skirt and heels at 11am on a Sunday morning, especially not after an almost four-hour train journey. 

“Well, I decided the place needed more of an adult feel to it considering it was just me living here for the past year. Although, I do think that this outfit of yours could do with a bit of an improvement, my new partner will be here soon and I wanted you to make a good first impression on him, not make him think you work at Forever 21 during your free time.” Mrs Hytes said with yet another disapproving look at Brooke’s outfit, specifically her shoes. But that wasn’t what Brooke chose to focus on. 

Her mother had a habit of dating her way through all of the most powerful men in the world of New York real estate and she really shouldn’t be surprised that there was yet another boyfriend she had to be introduced to, but she was shocked that her mother didn’t want to even spend time with her after being separated from each other for so long. 

“Really, mom? I was thinking we could go out, get brunch in the restaurant downstairs and then maybe go shopping or catch a movie.”

“Come on, Brooke, this is important to me. We can do that stuff anytime we want to, but Brian is a very busy man and we’ve been together for six months now, it’s about time you two met, so please do us all a favour and go get dressed!” Mrs Hytes sighed as she smoothed the non-existent wrinkles from her skirt out, sounding as uninterested as she possibly could in the conversation they were having.

“Actually, mom, I’m not feeling too well so I’m just going to go and rest. But I’m sure I can meet husband number 5 another time.” Brooke said quietly as she ran up the long stairs to her bedroom, which she prayed had not been touched in her mother’s awful home renovation. 

\--- 

1 year ago:

Brooke Lynn walked out of the elevator and took her heels off immediately, sighing in relief as her bare feet touched the cool tiles of the floor beneath her. She slowly walked up the stairs to her bedroom, trying not to stumble or wake her mother up with her loud noise.

She had just been at a club opening with all of her class from school – a big final night out before school started up again for the fall semester. The night ended up with all of them having way too many cocktails and dancing on the dancefloor until 3am, when her curfew was supposed to be at midnight. As she tiptoed down the long hallway to her bedroom, she regretted not taking up Vanessa’s offer of sleeping over at her house but she had a feeling that her mom would be super pissed if she didn’t come home that night – her grades from last year had been really bad and she had missed curfew multiple times over summer vacation. 

As she tried to open the door to her room slowly and quietly, she found her mom sitting on her bedroom floor with a bottle of tequila in her hand. 

“Mom, what are you—”

“Jesus Christ, Brooke, where have you been? You were supposed to be home four hours ago,” her mom screamed as she got up onto her feet, still clutching the bottle of tequila. “And what the hell is this? Are you an alcoholic now too? As well as almost getting expelled for your awful grades and coming home whenever you feel like it, you’ve decided that drinking all of your problems away will help you? Come on, Brooke, seriously.”

“Well, I learnt from the best.” Brooke replied as she shoved past her mom and went to her closet to find some pyjamas. Her head was spinning and she was exhausted, all she wanted to do was go to bed and sleep it off. 

“You’re not getting away with this, Brooke. You have to learn that there are consequences to your actions.” Mrs Hytes announced as she stormed out of the room, her heels still clacking against the wooden floors even though it was the middle of the night. Brooke rolled her eyes as she changed into pyjama shorts and a hoodie and climbed into her soft bed. Yeah, she really regretted not going to stay with Vanessa. 

She woke up the next morning to the sound of her mother’s voice ordering people around – quite a regular sound to wake up to in the Hytes household. Except this time, it sounded like the noise was coming from right inside her room. She slowly opened her eyes as she realised how hungover she must be. When her eyes fluttered open, she saw that her closet was empty and that there were five large suitcases standing at her bedroom door. There were also two housekeepers packing the contents of her vanity and her nightstand into a sixth suitcase.

“Mom, what are they doing? Why are you taking all my stuff?” Brooke asked. Suddenly, the memories of the previous night came flooding back to her: her mom finding her hidden alcohol and not reacting well to it. 

“I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, Brooke Lynn, and you’ve left me with no choice. Manhattan isn’t a good place for you to be in right now.” Her mother replied without even looking at her, instead she handed over a hanger with a black pencil skirt, white blouse and a blazer that had “Knightley Boarding School” written in a small font across the front. Her eyes widened in horror as she immediately jumped out of bed to try and plead with her mom. 

“Please mom, no, you can’t send me to boarding school. I love my life here, you can’t make me leave my friends, please mom, I’m begging you!” she yelled as she felt the tears start to well up in her eyes. She couldn’t imagine her life without Vanessa by her side, they’ve been best friends for what feels like their entire lives and the thought of having to go to school without her made Brooke’s heart feel like it was being snapped into two pieces. 

She started to panic and began looking around the room for her phone, checking her nightstand and the clutch bag she had been using the previous night, but couldn’t find it anywhere.

“Are you looking for this?” Mrs Hytes questioned as she held up Brooke’s silver flip phone in the air. “I’ll have it sent to Connecticut when I can see that your grades are going up and your behaviour is improving.” Brooke couldn’t hold her tears in anymore and while she would normally feel embarrassed about crying in front of the people who work for her family, this time she couldn’t care less.

“Please mom, I need to call Vanessa, I need to tell her where I’m going to be, she’ll be so worried if I just disappear!” Brooke tried to coke out in between her sobbing as she felt large tears rolling down her face. 

“I’ll tell Vanessa where you are and she can write to you until you get your phone back. Stop being so dramatic, Brooke Lynn, I’m sure there will be a phone there that you can use to call her if it’s as important as you’re making it out to be. Now get dressed, please. The car will be here at nine.” Her mother exited the room with the housekeepers following closely behind her. 

Brooke sat down on her bed again and tried to calm herself down. She managed to get her breathing back to normal but couldn’t stop the tears from slowly rolling down her face. She grabbed a framed picture from her vanity – it was a picture of her and Vanessa that was taken while they were visiting one of the Mateo’s vacation homes in Italy. That was one of the happiest days of Brooke’s life. She had gotten to spend the entire day with just Vanessa. They spent the day by the pool, swimming and sun bathing until Vanessa’s parents returned home that evening. She always felt her happiest when she was with Vanessa and that was evident from how big her smile was in that photo. She quickly unzipped one of the suitcases and slid the photo inside, returning back to her vanity to get herself ready for what she was sure was going to be one of the most upsetting days of her life. 

\--- 

Now:

The white walls, high ceilings and expensive furniture of the Mateo family’s Fifth Avenue penthouse apartment usually made Vanessa feel completely relaxed and at ease. But not today. Today, it seemed like everyone in that apartment was doing their absolute best to piss her off. 

Planning and organising had always been a skill of Vanessa’s. Give her the task of planning any kind of event and she would rise to the occasion flawlessly every single time, provided the people around her cooperated with her every wish. If they didn’t, they would have to deal with the wrath of Vanessa Mateo raining down upon them. She was trying her very best to plan the Kiss On The Lips party, a party that was held at the beginning of each school year to welcome all of the students back and was always guaranteed to be a glamorous night, which is why Vanessa was going through every single detail to make sure that they are all up to her standards. 

With her pink clipboard in hand, she stomped around the apartment making sure that each planning station she had set up was running smoothly. She had a decorations table where the decorators were preparing samples of the table pieces, she had the caterers serving samples of the food they were planning to cook on the night and, her favourite station, the design station. She had her dress custom made months ago, approved by her fashion designer mother, of course. Her two closest friends, Akeria and Silky, were trying on their dresses.

“Are you kidding me right now?” Vanessa screamed in horror as she looked at the decorating teams attempt at incorporating roses into the table pieces. “It’s peonies or nothing on those tables, I thought I made that very clear in the brief I emailed you WEEKS AGO!” Akeria rolled her eyes as she heard the shrill of Vanessa’s uptight voice, wishing for the moment the party was over so she could go back to having fun with Vanessa instead of having to deal with her stressful outbursts. 

“What do you think of my dress, V?” Silky asked, twirling in front of the mirror with a massive smile on her face. “It’s hot, right?” Vanessa’s eyes shot up from her clipboard. She took a large deep breath in and out to try and calm herself down as soon as she laid her eyes upon Silky’s dress. 

“I thought I made it very clear that I was wearing a strapless dress, Silky.”

“So what? They’re both completely different!” Silky argued back. 

“Does anyone listen to me around here? I swear to God, I told all of you people exactly what I wanted from you weeks ago and here we are, just a few days away from the hottest party of the year and everything is awful! Dorota!” Vanessa yelled at her number one trusted housekeeper who immediately was at her side, as usual, ready to try her best to solve all of Vanessa’s problems. 

“Dorota, did you or did you not send everybody in this room my list of demands for this stupid party?” 

“Of course I did, Miss Vanessa, I sent to each and every person as soon as you were done typing on your phone.” Dorota said proudly, her thick Polish accent coming through as she spoke. 

Suddenly, a beeping noise rang out of all three of the teenage girls’ phones, which can mean only one thing: the latest Gossip Girl blast of the day had just been posted. Vanessa immediately rolled her eyes and shoved her phone away from Dorota’s outstretched hand, wanting to focus on the party planning and not whatever gossip was being shared at that moment. She would save the gossip for later, when she was having her nightly bubble bath. 

“Oh my God!” Silky said in shock as she held her phone out to Akeria so she could see what was on her screen. 

“Why didn’t V tell us that Brooke was coming back?” Akeria whispered as quietly as she possibly could, not wanting to aggravate her friend even more. Silky shrugged and shook her head. 

“V, when were you gonna tell us Brooke Lynn was back? This is huge news!” Akeria said excitedly, happy that the fourth and final member of their tightknit group was finally back in New York. 

“What? Show me that!” Vanessa grabbed her phone from Dorota and opened the website as quickly as she possibly could and sure enough, there it was: a picture of her former best friend Brooke Lynn Hytes standing in Grand Central Station, her perfect blonde hair blowing in the wind as she made her way through the train station. 

Akeria eyed her friend up and down sceptically. 

“You didn’t know she was coming back?” 

“Of course I did, I just…forgot.” Vanessa’s hands were slightly trembling and she could feel her hands starting to beat faster. She hadn’t seen Brooke in a whole year and she wasn’t sure she wanted to see her again so soon considering Brooke hadn’t even bothered to let Vanessa know that she was moving away, let alone say goodbye. 

She stood in the middle of the hallway with her phone clutched tightly in her hand as she glared down at the picture of the girl she loved, completely in her own world and unaware of the things going on around her. 

\--- 

2 years ago:

Brooke and Vanessa sat on Brooke’s four poster canopy bed, the latest issues of Vogue littering the mattress as well as the chocolate covered strawberries and glasses of champagne that the two girls were slowly making their way through. They were both wearing pyjamas with black silk robes over them as they tried to enjoy their last moments of freedom that summer break had to offer before they had to start their sophomore year of high school. 

Vanessa watched Brooke as she animatedly described all of the things they were going to do that year. All the parties they’d host, the new restaurants they’d try out, the places they’d travel to during their winter and spring break. Vanessa, usually being the louder one in their friendship, was happy to sit back and listen to her best friend when she was this excited about something, especially if she was involved in the plans that Brooke was making. 

“This year is gonna be different, Ness. This is gonna be our year. We’re gonna rule that school together.” Brooke said while she grabbed a strawberry from the box and slowly started to bite the chocolate off of it. 

“Don’t we always?” replied Vanessa, a single eyebrow raised as if to challenge Brooke’s statement. 

“Come on, V, you know what I mean. We’re closer than we’ve ever been…this year is all about you and me. Nobody else.” Brooke said, getting quieter towards the end of her sentence. 

“Nobody else?” 

“Just you and me, Nessa.” 

\--- 

Now: 

“Hey, earth to Vanessa!” Silky shouted, her hand waving in front of Vanessa’s face. Vanessa’s eyes were still glued to her phone, to the picture of Brooke Lynn that she quickly removed from her screen and snapped her head up guiltily. 

“You have to get that little freshman girl Plastique to make an invitation for Brooke! She’s gonna love this party now that she’s back, especially because she didn’t have to help plan any of it.” Akeria said with a laugh. 

“She’s not invited.” Vanessa said simply.

“What do you mean she’s not invited? Why not?” Akeria asked, her perfectly arched brow raised as high as it could possibly go. 

“The party’s planned and adding another person to the guestlist would throw everything off. You’ve seen how incompetent everybody here is today…I’m not risking the success of the entire party just for Brooke Lynn.” Vanessa looked up to find Silky, Akeria and also Dorota were staring at her, clearly extremely confused, but at that point in time she just simply didn’t have the energy to care. 

“What are you guys doing? Get back to work! You need to find a new dress that isn’t copying my entire style, Silky, remember? Maybe focus your energy into that instead.” With that, Vanessa stormed up the stairs into her bedroom, slamming the door on her way in. she was not in the mood to be messed with right now.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanessa and Brooke reunite in the most dramatic way possible, and we learn some more about their past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so so so much to everyone who left comments or kudos on the last chapter, they were honestly so motivating for me to quickly finish and update this next chapter! 
> 
> I have up to chapter 4 written (but not edited) so the next couple of chapters should be up this coming week but after that, who knows how quickly I'll be able to get things up bc college starts back tomorrow morning ugh
> 
> Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this and have a good week!

Rise and shine, Upper East Siders! It’s officially Fall, which means that all of us get to go back to school for yet another scandalous year. Will today be the day we see Brooke Lynn Hytes return to being the socialite she once was, or will she be shipped off yet again? Only time, and the tips you send in, will tell. XOXO, Gossip Girl. 

\---

Vanessa’s alarm clock – also known as Dorota – woke her at precisely seven o’clock. She removed her pink silk eye mask and immediately went to hop into the already prepared bubble bath, allowing her body to fully submerge into the bathtub as she mentally prepared herself for the day ahead. The first day of her senior year. 

After she stepped out of the bath and slipped into her fluffy robe, she headed to the bathroom to start her morning skincare routine. Some people may say it’s time consuming, but not Vanessa. Her mother has drilled the importance of youthful looking skin into her brain from a very young age. Vanessa didn’t know any other seventeen-year olds who used two different anti-aging serums on a daily basis but she had promised herself that she was not going to get surprised with any wrinkles or frown lines…not before she could make her first Botox appointment. 

She returned to her bedroom to find her school “uniform” laid out on the bed in front of her. Once she had her short black skirt, black stockings, white blouse and school blazer on, she slid her black heels onto her feet and walked over to her vanity where she stored her accessories. This is where she added the finishing touches to her outfits. On this particular day, she chose one of her signature headbands (a red one) and placed it delicately onto her hair that was curled to perfection. 

After she finished applying some makeup, along with her signature red lipstick, she headed downstairs to the dining table where her family’s chef had prepared a variety of different breakfast options for Vanessa and her mother to choose from – a selection of pastries, fresh fruit and yoghurt. She picked up a chocolate and hazelnut croissant from the tray and paired it with a selection of different berries while Dorota poured her some green tea.

Alexis Mateo – Vanessa’s mother – entered the room hurriedly and frowned as soon as she saw what was on Vanessa’s plate. 

“You’re eating carbs this early in the morning, darling, that’s…brave.” Mrs Mateo said as she fixed her hair in the mirror, not paying attention to her daughter who rolled her eyes at her mother’s comment and took a big bite out of the croissant as if she had a point to prove.   
“I just hope you know that your metabolism won’t stay like this forever. One day all of these treats you allow yourself to have are gonna come back and haunt you,” This comment earned another eyeroll from Vanessa as she took a deep breath in and tried as hard as she could to force her frown into a smile. “Oh, also, I won’t be coming home tonight. There’s been some kind of disaster in the Paris office that everyone else is apparently unqualified to handle which means I have to go and solve every single problem, yet again.” She said with an exasperated sigh. 

“But you just got back from Europe, you said we could go to dinner tonight to celebrate my last ever first day of school!” Vanessa replied with a pout on her face. 

“Well Vanessa, that’s the joy of owning your own company. You can’t just expect me to stop working every time you want to go out for dinner. Sometimes work is a more important priority than a meal we can have at any time…isn’t Brooke Lynn back from boarding school? Take my card and bring her instead, you can celebrate together.” 

Vanessa immediately rolled her eyes again at the mention of Brooke’s name. She really wasn’t looking forward to seeing her again. She tried to convince herself that she wasn’t nervous but deep down she had a few butterflies floating around in her stomach that she really wanted to murder. 

Her mother left shortly after breakfast, muttered a quick goodbye to Vanessa and ate only a handful of grapes before she screamed at some staff members to come and carry her bags down to the car.

Vanessa continued to sit at the dining table for a bit longer and tried her best to hide the fact that she was upset with her mother for leaving her alone yet again. Sure, she had Dorota, but ever since her father moved to France about nine months ago, she had been feeling overwhelmingly lonely. Not to mention, her mother had started to work longer hours to keep herself occupied when she was finalising the divorce from Vanessa’s father. 

The pout on her face slowly started to disappear as Vanessa focused on the positives of the day she was about to have: she was going to walk into school with Akeria and Silky by her side, ready to retake her throne as the most powerful girl in school and there was nothing Brooke Lynn Hytes could do to take that away from her. 

Feeling a lot more empowered, she hopped up off of her chair and grabbed her purse and strutted towards the elevator. She found her family’s black limo with the driver ready and waiting to take her to school and as she stepped inside, the familiar smell of leather and the pine air freshener that was dangling from the mirror made her feel at ease. 

\--- 

The first half of Vanessa’s school day had been pretty uneventful so far. She had met up with her girls before school, yelled a sophomore for wearing last season’s shoes and gotten an A on her summer English literature assignment. She also hadn’t run into Brooke yet, which in her mind made it an all the more successful day. 

At lunchtime, Vanessa, Silky and Akeria were sat at their regular lunch spot – the steps of the MET. Plastique Tiara, a freshman girl from Brooklyn had been helping Vanessa out by making the invitations for the party ever since Vanessa had noticed how good her calligraphy was and had bribed her with an invite to the party in return for her work. 

Plastique nervously handed over the stack of envelopes and Vanessa took them, ready to thoroughly inspect them before she gave her the seal of approval. 

“Oh my God, Plastique, they’re so cute!” Akeria exclaimed as she took her invite from the pile and smiled widely at Plastique. 

Vanessa and Silky nodded their heads in agreement and Vanessa picked up the invite from the bottom of the pile and handed it back to Plastique. 

“Your invitation, as promised!” Vanessa fought the urge to roll her eyes at how excited the younger girl had gotten just from the invitation. Her face changed entirely as she saw a tall blonde figure casually approaching them with a frozen yoghurt in her hands.

“Hey, here you guys are! I looked all over the dining hall for you.” 

Vanessa had pictured her reunion with Brooke many times. But this? The blonde just walking up like absolutely no time had passed? Definitely not what she had in mind. 

The other girls were all noticeably shocked too. Others, such as Plastique, looked starstruck. Vanessa, however, looked absolutely fuming. 

“Hi, I’m Brooke Lynn.” She stretched her hand out to shake Plastique’s hand, which the younger girl accepted immediately. 

“I know. I mean, uh, I’ve seen you around and—” she stopped rambling as Brooke bended down to pick up one of the invitations that were sitting in Vanessa’s lap. Vanessa found herself trying to suppress an eyeroll for the second time in the last five minutes, and only half succeeded this time. 

“So, when’s the party?” Brooke looked directly at Vanessa when she spoke, as if there were no one else there. Silky, Akeria and Plastique were looking at Vanessa with anxious faces, waiting for her to answer, whereas Vanessa had turned on her signature bitch face and threw on one of her passive aggressive smiles for good measure. 

“Saturday…and…you’re kinda not invited, since until twelve hours ago everyone thought you were at boarding school and now we’re full, and Plastique used up all the invites.” Brooke raised her eyebrows slightly and Vanessa shrugged her shoulders with not a single care given. 

“Um, actually—” Plastique started to speak, Vanessa knowing full well that it would be easy to get Brooke an invite if she wanted to. But Vanessa managed to get her to shut up with just a single raise of her eyebrow, the look instilling fear in the younger girl and making her stay silent. 

“You can go now.” She said to Plastique who slowly started to pack up her things, still not wanting to miss the battle that was undoubtedly about to happen. However, all that happened was a classic B and V stare-down accompanied by a deafening silence. 

Vanessa was looking at Brooke Lynn with her protective shield – her bitch face – up, but underneath the surface she was trying her hardest not to break. She should’ve known that seeing the girl she’s been in love with for more than a year for the first time in a long time would’ve had some kind of emotional impact on her. Everything had an emotional impact on her. She cries at every romantic movie eve made and feels so much love for all of the important people in her life. Why did she think that this would be any different? Why did she allow herself to believe that she hated Brooke, when in reality, all she had to do was say three simple words to her and Vanessa would do anything she asked. But she couldn’t let that show to anyone…especially not Brooke Lynn. 

“Sorry…” Vanessa apologised half-heartedly, trying to sound at least somewhat sincere. 

“No, it’s okay…I got a lot of stuff to do anyway.” 

Vanessa started to pack her lunch up which meant that all the other girls immediately started to copy her and pack their lunch up too. 

“Well…we should get going then. Unless you want us to wait for you?” Vanessa stood up and predictably, the girls copied. “Looks like you got a lot of yoghurt left.”

Brooke was not an idiot, she could tell that Vanessa had no intention of waiting around for her, especially since she was already standing up and slowly moving away from her. 

“No, go ahead.” Vanessa responded by just rolling her eyes and walking away, Silky and Akeria on either side of her but still slightly behind. That was when Brooke Lynn decided to make a daring move. 

“Vanessa? Think we can meet up tonight?” she asked innocently, causing the three girls to quickly turn back around. Brooke would pay someone to photograph Vanessa’s face at that exact moment – shocked, confused and feeling out of control. She crossed her fingers that someone had their cell phone out and she could relive it later on Gossip Girl. 

“I’d love to…but I’m doing something with Nate tonight.” 

It technically wasn’t a lie. Nate was a cute boy that had been trying to date Vanessa for a while now and while she had turned him down repeatedly, he had kept coming back and asking over and over again. He hadn’t exactly asked her out on that specific day but she was sure she could just bat her eyes at him a couple times after school and he’d ask her out immediately…and she would actually say yes this time. 

“The Palace. Eight o’clock. Nate will wait.” 

Vanessa stood there stunned. How dare Brooke Lynn just waltz back into their friend group and try to call all the shots like she was in charge? Vanessa would be feisty and snap back if she could remember how to function. 

“I could probably do a half hour…” Vanessa responded quietly, readjusting her headband as if it were a crown on her head.

“Thanks for making the time.” Brooke Lynn said sarcastically, clearly letting Vanessa know she was enjoying the control she had over the other girl. 

“You’re my best friend.” Vanessa replied with the fakest smile she could possibly create in that moment. Not saying anything else, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and strutted ahead of Silky and Akeria, storming off to their next class. 

\--- 

Spotted on the steps of the MET: a power-struggle between B and V. Did B really think she could waltz home and things would be just like they were? Did V think B would go down without a fight? Or can these two hotties work it out? There’s nothing Gossip Girl likes more than a good catfight, and this could be a classic. 

\--- 

2 years ago: 

The two girls were sat on the large grey couch in the Hytes’ penthouse trying to study for their Latin exam the next day. Brooke was sitting on the couch looking at her phone without a care in the world whereas Vanessa was sitting on the floor, hunched over the coffee table with her head in her hands, mumbling to herself. 

She had all of her study materials spread across the table in front of her. This included four binders, colour coded of course, three decks of flashcards and two textbooks. Not to mention the abundance of pastel highlighters that seemed to have made their way onto every bit of paper that Vanessa owned. 

When Vanessa had suggested they should study together, Brooke Lynn didn’t actually think she was serious. So when Vanessa showed up with Dorota following behind her, carrying her massive bag of supplies, she was a bit disappointed. She thought they would at least get to talk or cuddle on the couch together but clearly, Vanessa had other plans. 

“Why do we have to study Latin anyway? It’s a dead language for a reason.” Vanessa grumbled as she leaned her head on the table as if it were a pillow.

“Because you decided it would look good on college applications and signed us both up for it, that’s why.” Brooke reminded her which earned her an eyeroll in response. Brooke patted the empty space beside her on the couch, signalling for Vanessa to join her. Vanessa ignored her by opening one of the textbooks in front of her and reached for one of her pink highlighters. 

“Hey, no—” Brooke grabbed the highlighter out of her hand and closed the textbook. Before Vanessa even had a chance to complain, Brooke used all her strength to grab the smaller girl and pull her onto the couch beside her. She took the blanket that was folded over the back of the couch and placed it gently in Vanessa’s lap. 

“I think it’s time for you to stop studying now…we all know you could get an A on this test without even trying.” 

“That makes one of us…” Vanessa replied playfully with a small smile on her face. Brooke replied by shoving her in the side which got a laugh out of Vanessa. Brooke smiled as that was all she wanted to do in that moment – make Vanessa forget about all of the things that caused stress in her life and focus on making her happy. 

Vanessa rested her head on Brooke’s shoulder which somehow lead to Brooke wrapping her arm around Vanessa’s body and locking their hands together. Vanessa released a deep breath that she didn’t realise she was holding in and relaxed into Brooke’s touch, slowly closing her eyes and allowing herself to feel completely at ease. 

This wasn’t something that should worry her and make her overthink. Friends cuddle all the time, right? A small frown came on her face as she tried to picture herself cuddling with Silky or Akeria like this. She wouldn’t enjoy it as much. Now, after that realisation, she had a reason to worry. 

“I can feel you overthinking from here.” 

“I’m not…” Vanessa lied with ease. If she could try and make Brooke believe it, then maybe she could make herself believe it. 

“If you really wanna study some more I won’t stop you again, I just figured you probably knew it all by now…” Brooke said quietly, afraid that she had upset Vanessa and caused her to stress more. 

“No, you were right, I am gonna ace this test. Now I just wanna spend time with you,” Vanessa replied softly. Brooke smiled and couldn’t stop the feeling of butterflies in her stomach from overtaking her. The fact that Vanessa could control her emotions with such a simple sentence like that was worrying. “Plus, you are really comfy, I have to admit.” 

“I’ll be your pillow anytime you want, V.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I don’t like when you’re stressed or sad…if I can help stop that, then I will.” 

Vanessa smiled and sat up slowly to look at Brooke Lynn properly. All she wanted to do was lean in and kiss her. Sure, they had kissed before but it had never really meant anything. It was always a drunken thing or part of a truth or dare game at one of Vanessa’s famous sleepovers. But the thought of kissing Brooke properly was consuming Vanessa’s mind more than any exam stress ever could. 

Thankfully, Brooke was thinking about doing the exact same thing. Her eyes broke contact with Vanessa’s to look at her lips before returning to her eyes. Her hands seemed to have a mind of their own in that moment as they cupped Vanessa’s face, her thumb stroking her cheek gently. 

“Can I?” Brooke whispered extremely quietly, so quietly that Vanessa wouldn’t have heard her if Brooke wasn’t already so close to her face. Vanessa nodded slowly, not able to get any words out as excitement and nerves took over her body. 

Brooke Lynn closed the tiny gap between the two of them and pressed her lips to Vanessa’s. Just a small peck to test it out. But Vanessa decided that she wanted more and leaned back in immediately and before either of them knew it, they were having a full-blown make out session on Brooke’s family’s couch. 

Unfortunately, they were interrupted by Brooke Lynn’s mom returning home not long after. They went to Brooke’s bedroom to get some sleep – but not before Vanessa stole a couple of more kisses. They didn’t do anything other than make out that night but needless to say, they didn’t get as much sleep as they should have the night before a big test.

Unsurprisingly, Vanessa still got an A. 

\--- 

Now: 

Vanessa looked at the rose gold watch on her wrist for what felt like the millionth time. It was almost eight thirty, half an hour after the time Brooke had said to meet up at. She felt like an idiot. Meeting up to talk had been Brooke’s idea in the first place and of course Vanessa jumped at the chance of spending some alone time with her, but Brooke hadn’t even bothered to show up. Not even a text to let Vanessa know that she was going to be late. 

Needless to say, Vanessa was pissed. 

Every single time that Brooke had ever done something wrong in their ten years of friendship was playing in Vanessa’s head like a movie clip on repeat. Like that time when Brooke’s parents had gotten her the diamond earrings that Vanessa wanted for Christmas and didn’t even offer to share them. Or when Brooke had let Vanessa’s arch enemy, Scarlet Envy, play with her new Barbie doll before she had even shown it to Vanessa when they were eight. 

Vanessa’s hand was clutching her martini glass so hard that if she tried just a tiny bit harder, she could probably break it. Thankfully at that exact moment, Brooke Lynn strolled into the bar, her long blonde hair braided to the side in a messy fishtail braid. She sat down beside Vanessa who was giving her quite possibly the angriest look that Brooke Lynn had ever seen in her life. 

“Hey…sorry I’m late…” Brooke said cautiously. Vanessa’s only form of reply was her narrowing her eyes even more. “Are you okay?”

“Do I look okay to you?”

“You look great, but, um…maybe a bit angry?” Brooke tried to lighten the mood a bit by complimenting her, which would usually work perfectly, but not this time. “Are you angry at me?”

“That’s the dumbest fucking question you’ve ever asked me.” 

“What did I do? I’m sorry I’m late, I just haven’t unpacked yet and I couldn’t find the right outfit and –” Vanessa could feel herself about to burst with anger and didn’t let Brooke finish her sentence. 

“Not about that, you idiot! You left me…you didn’t even say goodbye, you just fucking left. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was when people would ask me where you went and I had no idea? It was humiliating.” Vanessa replied, her voice broke slightly as she got emotional but hoped that Brooke didn’t notice. 

“V, I’m sorry but it was all so last minute and…” Brooke replied, her voice quiet and full of so much shame that she couldn’t complete her sentence. 

“Did you even think about telling me or were you just too excited to leave and go make new friends? Am I really so low on your list of priorities that you couldn’t even send me a text? Not even a “Hey V, I’m leaving, see you next year”? I had to find out from your mom, B. That’s not okay.” 

“Vanessa, you have to believe me, it wasn’t my fault!” Brooke tried to reason with her but Vanessa was having none of it. 

“Nothing is ever your fault, B, that’s the problem! You just do whatever you want and don’t think of the consequences or the fact that what you’re doing actually hurts other people sometimes.” Vanessa’s voice started to get louder and full of anger as she spoke, a year’s worth of repressed emotions finally coming to the surface. 

“Are you seriously doing this right now?” Brooke fought back with equal amounts of anger, not one to sit back and take being yelled at. 

“Doing what? Telling you the truth? I know you haven’t been here for a year and I’m sure that you’ve had everyone kissing your ass since you got back but that’s not gonna happen with me. You don’t get to leave me and then just walk back into my life like nothing happened.” 

“Don’t act like your innocent, V. You could’ve called. My mom gave you the number for my school when she told you where I was and you didn’t call once.” Brooke Lynn tried as hard as she could to keep any hurt from her voice, wanting to only show anger. 

“You left me. Are you not getting that? You left. I was here. Waiting for you,” Vanessa’s anger seemed to leave her body all at once and the only thing she could feel was pain. It was like she just found out that Brooke had left all over again. The feeling of rejection and of not feeling good enough crept back into her body, not caring how hard she had fought over the past year to get rid of it. “You clearly didn’t feel the same way that I did back then. I really thought you did but you didn’t…and you still don’t.”

Vanessa grabbed her purse and practically sprinted past Brooke and out of the door of the hotel bar as fast as she could, leaving Brooke frozen to her chair. 

She felt awful. She didn’t realise that Vanessa had been so affected by her leaving. She also didn’t think that Vanessa had felt the same way about her as she did about Vanessa. Just yesterday, the idea of Vanessa having even the tiniest amount of feelings for Brooke would’ve made her burst with excitement, but now all she felt was guilt. 

She grabbed the rest of Vanessa’s drink and downed it quickly as she tried to think about how she could fix everything and make it all okay. She ordered another two drinks after she came to the conclusion that she probably couldn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: kikimateohytes


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanessa is still extremely angry about everything that happened with Brooke and we see just how hurt she was when Brooke left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello loves, here's chapter 3! I just wanted to say thank you for the comments on the last chapter, everyone who commented is now the new love of my life lol. 
> 
> I'm starting to fall behind with writing this because of college work and boring stuff like that but I'm hoping I can get another chapter up by the weekend!
> 
> I hope all of you angels are having an amazing week and I hope you enjoy this chapter! xoxo

Vanessa usually loved going to school. She loved spending time with her friends and judging the other girls’ outfits, but most importantly, she loved the power that she held over everyone. So when Vanessa wasn’t feeling her absolute best, everyone noticed.

It didn’t help when the reason for Vanessa’s sour mood was eating lunch in the same cafeteria as her, just three tables down. 

The outdoor cafeteria of Constance Billiard School for Girls was usually a pretty relaxed place. Students would pick at their lunch, rush to finish their homework assignments at the last minute or check the latest Gossip Girl blasts.

Vanessa, Silky, Akeria and Plastique sat at the centre table. Silky and Akeria were gossiping loudly about Silky’s latest date with a lacrosse player while Plastique was nodding along trying to hide the confusion on her face. On a normal day, Vanessa would jump at the chance of roasting Silky’s choice in men while Akeria cackled alongside her. 

After being asked by Akeria approximately eight times if she was okay, and then being asked a further five times by Silky, Vanessa had enough. 

“I AM FINE!” she yelled, causing several heads to turn and look at her with wide eyes. Vanessa abruptly packed up her things and stormed out of the school, leaving her friends concerned for about one minute before they went right back to talking about Silky’s dating life.

Three tables down from them, Brooke watched with concern as she witnessed Vanessa storm out for the second time that week. She thought about opening up her phone and texting her to make sure that she was alright, but she quickly realised that it would probably cause more harm than good. Plus, she didn’t really know if they were on speaking terms at the moment. 

Brooke was sitting with Nina West, who was the daughter of one of New York’s most successful and influential bankers. Their parents had been friends for years which meant that Brooke and Nina had no choice but to become close friends since they had spent a lot of time growing up together. Those days consisted of spending most of their time in Brooke or Nina’s bedroom while their parents got wine drunk downstairs. 

Nina was a year older than Brooke and in Brooke’s eyes, that made the older girl seem a lot wiser than all of the other people she knew. They didn’t really hang out much in their spare time, apart from when they had to go to an event that both of their families were attending, but Brooke was always able to confide in Nina. 

It wasn’t a secret that Brooke Lynn was gay. Her multiple flings from two years ago had been posted all over Gossip Girl as soon as they had happened and no one had really cared. Sure, guys still hit on her all the time and told her she was “too pretty to be gay”, but they would usually leave her alone once she started to yell at them. 

Nina knew about Brooke and Vanessa’s history, how Vanessa was still very much in the closet to everyone apart from Brooke and how it didn’t seem like she wanted to change that anytime soon. So when Brooke returned from boarding school, Nina had immediately noticed that something was off between the two girls. 

“So what was that all about?” Nina nodded her head in the direction of the gates that Vanessa had just stormed out of. 

“What makes you think I’d know?” Brooke mumbled, her eyes looking down at her salad bowl instead of up at Nina. 

“Don’t try that shit with me, B. You know that I know everything that happened with you two last year and I know how beat up she was when you left, so what’s changed?” Brooke loved Nina, but she also hated Nina’s no-nonsense approach to life, especially when it was Brooke’s life that was in question. 

“She hates me.” 

“I’m one million percent sure that she doesn’t hate you.” 

“We’re not talking to each other and she stormed out on me when we tried to talk things out, okay?” Brooke could feel the sadness inside her growing the more she talked about what happened with Vanessa out loud. She hated any feelings of sadness in her life and she especially hated when she couldn’t go and talk to Vanessa about them. 

“Do you want things to work out?” Nina asked inquisitively with a raised eyebrow. Brooke looked at her with a frown on her face. 

“What are you talking about? Why would I not want it to work out?” Brooke was outraged by Nina’s accusation. The only thing she wanted in life right now was for Vanessa to be by her side. Even if it meant stopping whatever weird relationship they had going on and settling for just being friends. 

“Well, let’s be real here, Brooke. You never know what you want. Maybe you’re clinging onto the past and it’s not letting you work things out logically,” Nina replied while picking up a piece of sushi with her chopsticks and placing it into her mouth. “If you wanna be with her, tell her. If you wanna be just friends, then that’s okay too. But she deserves to know.” 

Brooke nodded slowly and they sat in silence for a few moments. The love that Brooke felt for Vanessa seemed to hit her all at once and she was overwhelmed by it. All of the things that could go wrong started to flood her mind. What if she told Vanessa that she loved her but Vanessa didn’t feel the same way? What if Vanessa loved her back but wasn’t ready to come out so they couldn’t date? What if Vanessa hated her so much for leaving that she didn’t want to be her friend anymore, let alone her girlfriend? 

Brooke took a few deep breaths in and out to try and calm her anxiety like her therapist had taught her. Nina placed a hand on her shoulder sympathetically and squeezed it. 

“Listen…I didn’t mean to get you all up in your head. But maybe it’s where you need to be right now. Work things out in your head before you try to work things out with Vanessa. Take your time, as much time as you need, and when you’re ready you two can sit down and have an adult conversation about what you both want to do moving forward.” 

“You’re right, Nina…thank you.” Brooke smiled weakly at her longest friend as she started to pack up her things. Nina followed her actions and they both walked to their afternoon classes together in silence as Brooke began to overthink what her next move was going to be. 

\--- 

1 year ago 

The elevator doors opened as they reached the floor of the Mateo’s apartment, Vanessa immediately stepped out and stomped over to Dorota and threw her school bag into the waiting woman’s arms. Vanessa’s phone was glued to her hand and had been all day. She’d been calling and texting Brooke for hours now and hadn’t gotten a single reply. 

As she walked up the large staircase to her bedroom, she tapped on Brooke’s name for the 34th time that day and heard the familiar dial tone yet again. She rolled her eyes at the phone not being answered and started to type her 42nd text message: 

To: Brooke Lynn Hytes  
BROOKE WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU??? CALL ME BACK!!! 

After she changed out of her school uniform and attempted to finish some school work for around twenty minutes, she slammed her notebook closed with a dramatic sigh. Yeah, the homework was due tomorrow but she couldn’t get her brain to focus on anything but Brooke Lynn, so what was the point in continuing it?

As she began to contemplate all of the reasons that Brooke could be ignoring her for what felt like the millionth time, she decided to call the only person that might know where Brooke was: her mom. Vanessa never had to call Brooke’s room at The Palace, the blonde’s phone usually by her side twenty-four seven. 

“Hello?” Brooke’s mom answered the phone and Vanessa breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t have to speak to a member of staff and be put on hold. She wasn’t sure her patience could handle it. 

“Mrs Hytes, hi, it’s Vanessa.” She blurted out all too quickly, sounding anything but calm and collected like she had intended to. 

“Hello Vanessa, darling, is everything okay?”

“Not really…uh, is Brooke Lynn at home? It’s just that she didn’t turn up to school and—” Vanessa began to explain herself but was cut off by Mrs Hytes. 

“I should’ve known that’s why you were calling…” Mrs Hytes paused before taking a deep breath in. “Vanessa, there’s no easy way for me to say this but Brooke Lynn and I have decided she needs a bit of time away from Manhattan for a while.” 

“Time away? What do you mean, like, a vacation?” Vanessa instantly pictured Brooke laying on a beach on some tropical island with another girl and was instantly riddled with jealousy. 

“No, not a vacation… she’s been enrolled in a boarding school in Connecticut for this school year. We’ll re-evaluate whether she will be coming back next year closer to the time.” Vanessa felt her heart shatter into a million pieces in her chest. She couldn’t find the words to reply which left a bit of an awkward pause on the telephone call. “Vanessa? Are you still there?” 

“Yeah…I’m just, confused…she didn’t tell me she was going anywhere.” 

“Well, it was a pretty last-minute decision, but we both decided it was for the best. She ended up being pretty excited about the whole thing.” Mrs Hytes said, not caring that she was lying to Vanessa. 

Vanessa felt her heart sink. She couldn’t believe that Brooke had left without telling her, and not only that, had been excited about it. All she could think about in that moment was how awful she felt. She was just starting to come to terms with how deeply she felt for Brooke and in one day, both of their lives had changed. She felt a single tear roll down her cheek as she hung up on Mrs Hytes, not saying goodbye. 

She crawled into bed, got under the soft, luxurious covers and immediately started to cry. The last time she cried that hard was when her childhood dog died, which kind of summed up how she was feeling: like Brooke Lynn was gone forever. Like she was never coming back. She hadn’t even said goodbye to Vanessa. Not even a phone call or a text. 

Vanessa didn’t know if she’d ever get over this pain. 

They weren’t even together, so why did she feel like she’d just been dumped? 

\--- 

Now: 

After school had finished, Brooke went straight to Central Park. The park had always been her favourite place to go and reflect on everything that was going on in her life. Usually, she used it as a safe place to escape to when her mom brought home yet another new boyfriend. Sometimes, she went there when her dad had promised to come and visit but unsurprisingly had cancelled at the very last minute because of “work”. She would take her journal or a book and just escape her life for a little bit. 

The hours passed by but if someone asked Brooke how long she had been sitting there for, she wouldn’t be able to answer the question. She was sitting on a bench with her legs outstretched in front of her. It was raining heavily around her but as the bench was under a large bridge, she was protected. She was so engrossed in her book that she didn’t even notice the person walking up to her. 

“Whenever something’s bothering you, I can always find you here.” The voice startled Brooke but she was even more surprised when she looked up and realised that it was Vanessa. She wanted to smile and wrap her arms around the shorter girl, but she tried her best to fight her instincts and hold back. 

“You here for another catfight?” Brooke asked as she stood up, facing Vanessa and looking straight into her eyes. Vanessa didn’t reply and broke eye contact with Brooke, opting to look at the ground instead. After a few short moments had passed, she reached into her purse and took out a white envelope with Brooke’s name on it. Brooke froze and it felt like her heart beat stopped momentarily as she nervously looked at the envelope in Vanessa’s hands. 

“What’s that?” Brooke asked as she internally debated whether she wanted to know the answer to her own question or not. What if Vanessa wanted nothing to do with her anymore, wanted Brooke out of her life permanently and never wanted to see her again, and this is her way of telling her? Vanessa wouldn’t write that in a letter, would she? Brooke hoped that she’d at least say it to her face. 

“It’s a letter…I wrote it to you when you were in boarding school but I never sent it.” Vanessa explained as she opened the envelope and carefully unfolded the page. Brooke started to fidget with her hands as Vanessa started to read the letter out loud. 

“Dear Brooke,   
My world is falling apart and you’re the only one who would understand…but you’re not here.   
My father left my mother for a 31-year-old model. A male model. I feel like screaming because I don’t have anyone to talk to. You’re gone, my dad’s gone, my mom’s acting weird…   
Where are you? Why don’t you call? Why did you leave without saying goodbye? You’re supposed to be my best friend. You said you’d always be here with me.  
I don’t know what to do without you here…I don’t know what my life is supposed to be like without you in it. I miss you so much.   
Love, vanessa”

Vanessa finished reading the letter with watery eyes. She was trying her absolute hardest to keep her tears in. Brooke, on the other hand, had large tears rolling down her face as she heard the pain that Vanessa had been in because of her. Pain that she caused, even though she didn’t do it intentionally. 

“Why didn’t you send it?” Brooke asked quietly, her voice hoarse as she tried to stop herself from openly sobbing. 

“What would you have done if I had sent it? You knew. You knew what was happening and you didn’t even call.” Vanessa argued, now with her tears pouring down her face as she tried not to let her anger take over her body once again. 

“I didn’t know what to say or how to even be your friend after everything that was going on between us, V… I’m so sorry.” Brooke reached out to take Vanessa’s hand in hers and silently thanked all the gods in the universe when Vanessa let her and didn’t flinch or drag her hand away. 

“Nina called me earlier…after I left school this afternoon. She told me things haven’t been so easy for you either. I guess your families been going through a rough time too.” Brooke nodded slowly, agreeing with what Vanessa said and Vanessa wrapped her arms around Brooke’s neck, letting her letter fall to the floor as she finally was able to hug the girl that she missed for so long again. 

Brooke’s arm wrapped around Vanessa’s waist as she buried her head in her neck. She immediately felt at peace. Like nothing bad could happen to her or Vanessa when they were in each other’s arms. Brooke hugged her tighter as she decided that she never wanted this to end. 

Vanessa tried to look around discreetly to make sure that no one was watching them. With Gossip Girl and her minions running around, she could never be too safe. She had seen a man and a teenage girl with red hair walking around on her way to the park, but she didn’t recognise either of them and the park seemed to be empty.

Vanessa pulled back slightly and Brooke followed her lead. They were staring deeply into each other’s eyes and Vanessa couldn’t help but bring her eyes to Brooke’s lips. She let out a shaky breath and decided that she had waited over a year to see Brooke again and she couldn’t hold back anymore. She leaned in slowly and their lips met, Brooke reciprocating Vanessa’s advances immediately. 

The rain poured down loudly around them and they still had red eyes and mascara stains on their faces from the crying, but in that moment, neither of the girls would have changed a thing. They continued kissing for what felt like hours and for the first time in an entire year, both girls felt as if they were entirely calm. 

But unfortunately for them, what they didn’t see was the flash of a camera phone going off just in front of them, hidden by the fog that the rain had brought. 

\--- 

Spotted in Central Park: Brooke and Vanessa finally talking things out. Could an Upper East Side peace accord be far off? So what will it be: besties, or enemies? We all know one nation can’t have two queens. What happens next? Only time will tell.   
XOXO, Gossip Girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come talk to me on tumblr: kikimateohytes


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We learn a bit more about Brooke's time at boarding school and the girls reconnect after spending so much time apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm an idiot for trying to commit to uploading twice a week lol I'm sorry this chapter took so long but here it is! I'm hoping to have the next chapter up in a couple of days so stay tuned for that!
> 
> Again, thank you so much to all of you lovely people who left comments on the last couple of chapters, you are truly the best people to ever walk the planet and I love you

1 year ago

The dim lights of Brooke’s dorm room reflected her mood almost perfectly. She was alive, yes. But she didn’t feel as alive as she used to. She didn’t feel the joy she used to feel when she was with Vanessa or the annoyance she used to feel when she’d fight with her mother. She just felt…numb. 

Boarding school had not been what Brooke had expected. She thought it would be full of boring people from small towns in the middle of nowhere that she would have nothing in common with. So when she had actually made some pretty cool friends on her first day, she was surprised. 

The girl she had become closest to was named Kameron. She was from Nashville and although Brooke had thought she was nothing but an extremely shy girl who never spoke the first few times they met, she had soon learned that once you got to know her, Kameron had an amazing personality. It also didn’t help that she was extremely hot, too. 

They were lying on Brooke’s double bed passing a bottle of Don Julio tequila back and forth. Brooke Lynn had been shocked when Kameron had produced the large bottle from her bag, mostly because that particular brand was known to be very expensive, but also because she didn’t think Kameron was that kind of girl. 

She had promised her mom that she would stay away from alcohol while she was there. That was one of the main reasons she was here, anyways. Her mom was concerned with her drinking habits. But one night couldn’t hurt, right? 

Brooke Lynn knew she was a pretty girl and never really cared too much when guys hit on her (which happened often). But when girls hit on her, she was always shocked. Also confused. But mainly shocked. She had been picking up on Kameron’s little flirty comments every now and then. But she had been embarrassed by mistaking too many straight girls’ compliments for flirting in the past so she had learned to stop reciprocating anything until she knew for sure that the other girl was interested…and when she saw how Kameron was looking at her after a few shots, she knew for sure. Kameron was definitely interested. 

Usually, something like this would excite Brooke. A hot girl liking her back? She had hit the ultimate lesbian jackpot. So why was she currently drunk crying about Vanessa? 

“I just don’t know why I didn’t tell her I’m in love with her, Kam. I love her sooo much. Like, more than I’ve ever loved anything,” Brooke rambled on and on for a long time, not noticing how Kameron was frequently rolling her eyes whenever Brooke wasn’t looking. “And like, I know it wouldn’t work out because she’s so far in the closet and she probably won’t ever come out but Kam, I wanna be with her so bad.” 

“Yeah, you’ve mentioned…” Kameron sounded annoyed as she took a large sip from the bottle. She had come here to seduce Brooke Lynn Hytes and so far, all she had got was Brooke whining about some girl she never even dated. 

“And she’s so beautiful too. She’s got these gorgeous big brown eyes that could make you do whatever she wanted. And her hair is always so shiny and soft and it always smells like coconut and vanilla. And her skin is golden brown and so smooth and perfect. I miss her so much, Kameron.” Brooke started to sob uncontrollably, her face buried in her pillow. 

Kameron patted her back awkwardly in an attempt to comfort the blonde but it was unsuccessful. She took another sip of the tequila and tried breathing deeply in an effort to calm herself down. She came here for one thing and one thing only…and if there’s one thing everyone should know about Kameron Michaels: she always gets what she wants. 

A few moments had passed and Brooke stopped crying. She looked in the mirror in front of her and wiped the tears from her face, already seeming a lot more sober than she had just a few minutes ago. A blush crept up on her cheeks as she realised how stupid she must look in front of her new friend, but Kameron was just smiling innocently at her. 

“I know it must be hard, B, but now that you’ve let it all out, you can try and move on.” Kameron said, touching Brooke’s forearm lightly. 

Brooke narrowed her eyes in confusion at Kameron’s words. Move on? Why would she want to move on? She was in love with someone who might love her, or at the very least, like her back…shouldn’t that be something worth hanging onto? 

“Sorry for ruining the night, Kam. I totally understand if you wanna leave—”

Kameron interrupted Brooke by crawling towards her and leaned in, invading Brooke’s personal space.

“The night isn’t over yet, Brooke,” she said with a devilish smirk on her face. “You need to focus on what’s right in front of you instead of being so worked up about someone who’s not even here.” Her hands went up to Brooke’s cheek and she lightly stroked her thumb across it. 

“Kameron, I can’t do this with you…” Brooke said half-heartedly. 

“Sure you can. You need a rebound and I’m happy to sacrifice myself to make you happy.” Brooke knew deep down that nobody, not even Kameron, would compare to Vanessa…but she felt so empty. Was it so bad for her to do something that could potentially make her feel something again? She knew it was most likely the tequila that was clouding her judgement. She knew she would never think of accepting Kameron’s offer if she was sober. But she did it anyway. Brooke placed her hand over Kameron’s and pulled her in slowly. 

“If we do this, it’s a one-time thing.” Brooke whispered. Kameron nodded, seemingly not listening to her, and wrapped her arms around Brooke’s neck, pulling their bodies together as close as humanly possible. Their lips met and Brooke instantly noted that her lips weren’t as soft as Vanessa’s. The kiss was messy. It felt rushed and out of sync and Brooke wasn’t even sure if she wanted to keep going, but something deep down in her reminded her that this was the first time she’s felt anything in a long time. She could at least try and pretend that Kameron was Vanessa. 

Kameron pushed Brooke down so she was lying on her back and straddled her waist. They continued making out at a fast pace while Kameron’s hands roamed Brooke’s body at a very quickly. As Kameron began to suck on her neck, Brooke knew that this would never happen with Kameron again. 

The only thing that she felt was that she missed Vanessa even more. Trying to get over her was a stupid move. She didn’t think she would ever get over Vanessa, let alone have another chance to be with her…and nothing made her feel as sad as that realisation. 

\--- 

Now: 

Spotted: Vanessa and Brooke having a day out on the town. These two trendsetters were seen in almost every boutique on the Upper East Side. Is there a special event coming up or were these two besties just reconnecting? Keep me updated. XOXO, Gossip Girl. 

Brooke’s bedroom was filled with her two favourite things: Vanessa and shopping bags. It was their first day hanging out since Brooke Lynn had been back from boarding school. They were finally talking to each other again, they had kissed and made up and everything seemed to be going very well. 

They had spent the day doing things that they used to do all the time. They got coffee and walked around in Central Park, they went shopping and spent a ton of their parent’s money and Brooke even surprised Vanessa with a trip to her favourite French restaurant since Brooke Lynn knew that Vanessa loved anything related to France. 

There was a bit of an awkward energy between them but neither of them brought it up. Ever since they had kissed a couple of days ago, they hadn’t kissed again. It was all both of the girls had thought about since they went home that night and they both wanted to do it again, but the right moment hadn’t presented itself. 

Sure, Brooke had thought about doing it when Vanessa brought her favourite coffee order (an iced americano with hazelnut syrup and oat milk). She had also contemplated doing it when they were in one of Vanessa’s favourite accessory stores and she was overwhelmed with how cute Vanessa was when she was visibly excited about the new headbands they had in stock. 

Vanessa seemed to be having more trouble than Brooke was with physically restraining herself. All she wanted to do was make out with Brooke at any given moment throughout the day but she didn’t want to risk anyone seeing. The thought of people finding out she was gay terrified her…and she knew she would never forgive herself if the reason that people found out was because she was impulsive and couldn’t control herself around Brooke Lynn. She ended up having to calm herself down and settle for lingering touches and flirty looks thrown in Brooke’s direction, and they ended up having a lovely day that on the outside, made them look like any other normal teenage best friends. 

Brooke was hanging some of the new clothing items she had just bought up in her closet while Vanessa was sitting on Brooke’s bed, making herself comfortable by laying back on the fluffy pillows and kicking her heels off. 

“I forgot how damn comfy your bed is.” Vanessa said while removing her headband and snuggling up under the covers. 

“And I forgot how often you used to fall asleep in my bed even though you claim to never be tired.” Brooke replied and Vanessa’s eyes shot open immediately. 

“I’m not gonna fall asleep, I was just resting my eyes…” Vanessa said non-committedly while Brooke took her shoes off and got in the bed beside her. 

“Sure you’re not, V…” Some of Vanessa’s hair had spread onto Brooke’s side of the bed so she began to stroke it. Vanessa sighed a deep sigh of contentment and tried to not let her eyes close. She hadn’t felt this relaxed in a very long time. 

“I missed this.” Vanessa whispered as Brooke began to stroke her cheek. 

“I missed you.” Brooke replied, earning a massive smile from Vanessa in return. 

“So when are you gonna tell me all about boarding school?” Vanessa asked, leaning up on her elbow so that she was looking down at Brooke with an eyebrow raised. Brooke lay flat on her back and sighed. 

“There’s not much to tell, really. I went to class, studied so they didn’t call my mom and tell her I was failing and the weather was awful. You would’ve hated it.” 

“Hold up, am I hearing this right? You studied?” Vanessa asked with her mouth open in shock, which caused both of the girls to giggle. 

“I had to, my mom made it super clear that if I didn’t get good grades, I wouldn’t be able to come back to New York so that was my motivation. Trust me, I hated every minute of it.” 

“That’s the main reason she sent you there, right? Because of your grades?” Vanessa asked with a sad tone to her voice. Even though she had Brooke back in her life, she still hadn’t gotten over her leaving. She knew it would take time to fully heal, but she wished she could focus on enjoying her time with Brooke instead of focusing on when she wasn’t there. 

“Yeah…that and the drinking. I also think she just wanted to live by herself for a bit and not have to worry about looking after a kid so she just shipped me off. I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner, to be honest.” Brooke was surprised with herself for revealing so much information without being asked. She hadn’t had a conversation with Vanessa for so long that she forgot how easy it was for them to open up to each other. 

“I’m sure that’s not true, B…your mom loves you a lot.” Vanessa replied as she took Brooke’s hand in hers and stroked her thumb gently. 

“I know…but sometimes her ways of dealing with things are a little bit shitty. Like, if I didn’t know any better I’d say she was a robot because of how emotionless she is.” 

“You can say that again, my mom just jets off to Paris to avoid dealing with her shit here. And when things get bad over there, she comes back or goes to another European city. How did we end up with more emotional maturity than our parents?” Vanessa asked and Brooke laughed in response.

“You think that the two girls who didn’t talk to each other for an entire year due to stubbornness are emotionally mature?” Brooke continued to laugh and Vanessa rolled her eyes. 

“Yeah, but at least we knew that was wrong. They don’t see any problems with what they’re doing.” She replied with a smug look on her face, knowing she was right.

“I guess you have a point there,” Brooke said as she pulled Vanessa closer to her so they could cuddle. “Have you seen your dad recently?” 

“No…he said he was only going to France for a few months but…I don’t think he’s coming back anytime soon.” 

“I’m sorry, V.” Brooke said as Vanessa’s head rested on her shoulder. 

“It’s okay…I’m used to it,” Vanessa said quietly. She moved her head slightly up so that she was looking directly into Brooke’s eyes. Vanessa noticed how Brooke’s entire facial expression immediately softened as soon as they locked eyes and she started to feel overcome with emotion. “Just promise me you’ll never leave me again…” Vanessa whispered, still keeping eye contact with Brooke. Brooke let out a large exhale and cupped Vanessa’s cheek with her hand. 

“I’ll never leave you, Ness. I promise.” Brooke said it with so much conviction that Vanessa was almost sure she would start crying, but she was unable to finish that thought as Brooke had leaned in to kiss her. The kiss was all consuming and managed to take Vanessa’s mind off of everything she had previously been worrying about. She allowed herself to focus solely on kissing Brooke Lynn, and she did it like her life depended on it. 

\--- 

2 years ago: 

It was the fourteenth of December, one of Vanessa’s favourite nights of the winter season; the night of her infamous sleepover. 

Teenage girls on the Upper East Side would make it their goal in life to get an invite to Vanessa Mateo’s sleepover. Even if they hadn’t been before, the stories they would have heard from other girls who had previously been had made the desire build in them and all they wanted was a chance to experience it for themselves.

Of course, getting an invite wasn’t that easy. Vanessa had extremely high standards and was very picky with who she let into her home. The only three people who had always managed to make the list every year were Brooke Lynn, Silky and Akeria. Other than that, the invite list changed drastically every year. 

This year, there were ten girls in attendance, including Vanessa herself. They had just finished eating their three-course dinner and had prank called a ton of girls from school who had tried to get an invite but were unsuccessful. While Vanessa would have been happy to just sit around and gossip for a bit, Akeria had another idea that got all of the girls excited.

“Let’s play spin the bottle!” Akeria announced, already searching for something they could use as a makeshift bottle to play with. Vanessa noticed how her heart started to beat just a tiny bit faster, but she couldn’t let anyone know she was nervous. Not at her own party. 

Akeria grabbed Vanessa’s reusable water bottle and instructed everyone to form a circle. Vanessa sat down on the floor beside Silky and Brooke Lynn grabbed a pillow from the couch and sat beside her.

Akeria started the first round of the game by spinning the bottle and it landed on Scarlet Envy, a very popular older student from their school. Scarlet seemed to not care about the game at all and leaned into the circle, grabbed Akeria’s face and kissed her forcefully and quickly. The girls all laughed and then it was Scarlet’s turn to spin. 

It landed on Yvie, her best friend, and they had a quick make out session which ended up with Scarlet’s notorious red lipstick smudging down her face. It was Yvie’s turn next and as the bottle was spinning around in a circle, Vanessa saw it start to slow down as it made its way towards her. She held her breath as it moved slowly and started to mentally prepare herself with the awkwardness of kissing Yvie but to her surprise, the bottle landed on Brooke Lynn. Vanessa squeezed her first’s together in anger and tried to compose herself. On the outside, she looked fine. But on the inside, she was insanely jealous. 

Yvie leaned in and gave Brooke a quick peck on the lips which made both Scarlet and Vanessa happy. It seemed as though the kiss was over before it began. Brooke sat up and grabbed the bottle, spinning it gracefully and sitting back down to wait to see who it landed on. Vanessa mentally cursed the bottle each time it passed her. She didn’t want to throw a tantrum at her own party but she really didn’t want to see Brooke kissing other girls. She just didn’t need that mental image in her mind. 

It had been a few weeks since they had first kissed while studying at Brooke’s house and ever since then, they had been making out every chance they got when no one else was around. Brooke Lynn had even arrived earlier than all of the other girls just so they could make out before everyone else got there. Vanessa had somehow become addicted to Brooke and they had been spending way more time together than usual. While Vanessa was slightly scared about how much closer they had gotten in just a couple of weeks, it excited her way more. 

Vanessa was suddenly brought back to reality when she heard Akeria and Silky screaming excitedly. She looked up from her daydreaming and saw that the bottle was pointing directly at her. She looked at Brooke who was sitting beside her with a devilish grin on her face. She raised her eyebrow and nodded at the bottle on the floor. 

“Shall we?” Brooke asked and Vanessa nodded dumbfoundedly. She was about to kiss Brooke in front of people. What if people could tell that she was enjoying it? She wasn’t ready for people to know that she liked girls yet. She didn’t know if she would ever be ready. 

Suddenly all of her thoughts were shut down because Brooke Lynn had leaned in, grabbed her face with both hands and started to kiss her. It wasn’t a particularly long kiss, Scarlet and Yvie’s had probably lasted longer, but it was enough for Vanessa to be left with a deep red blush on her cheeks. 

As Vanessa tried to regain her composure, Brooke shared a knowing look with her and winked. 

“I think Vanessa’s a little bit shook after her first lesbian kiss, everyone!” Silky said loudly which made everyone laugh, including Brooke, although she was laughing for a whole other reason. This did nothing to help Vanessa’s red cheeks which somehow got even redder. She felt extremely embarrassed, but was also on a bit of a high from the kiss. 

She rolled her eyes at Silky’s comment and tried to get her control of the room back. She wouldn’t let herself be outdone or look like a loser in her own home. She took a small breath in and immediately her false sense of confidence was back and her bitch face was on. 

“Shut up, Silky. It wasn’t even that good anyway.” She added with a wink thrown back in Brooke’s direction. Brooke seemed genuinely shocked at Vanessa’s comment but just narrowed her eyes and kept eye contact with Vanessa who had a guilty smile on her face. 

The game went on for a few more rounds. Vanessa ended up being pecked on the cheek by Akeria and much to her own satisfaction, Brooke didn’t have to kiss anyone else. Once the game was all finished up, Vanessa made her way up to her bedroom to sit down for a minute. She needed to recharge her social battery so she could continue playing the role of the perfect hostess. What she didn’t anticipate was that Brooke had followed her upstairs. 

Vanessa sat down on the armchair in the corner of her room when Brooke walked in. Brooke immediately walked over to where Vanessa was sitting and knelt on the floor in front of her. She had her hands placed on Vanessa’s thighs and stared at her, not saying a word. 

“Hey, B…” Vanessa said quietly, squirming under Brooke’s intense stare. Brooke took a lock of Vanessa’s hair in her hand and began to twirl it around as she leaned in even closer.

“Not that good, huh?” Brooke asked.

“What?..” Vanessa didn’t know what she was talking about. Brooke was invading her space so much that she couldn’t focus on anything other than the blonde’s presence.

“The kiss. You said it wasn’t that good,” Brooke stated simply as she pulled back completely to look directly into Vanessa’s eyes. Vanessa was disappointed at the lack of contact and looked back at Brooke with needy eyes. She tried her best to form a sentence but her brain wasn’t functioning properly. “No words, huh?” 

“I…didn’t mean it?” Vanessa tried her best to sound confident as she spoke but ended up not being able to say her words with conviction. Brooke leaned her arm in and stroked Vanessa’s cheek and smiled. 

“That’s what I thought. I seem to remember us kissing like twenty times earlier and I didn’t hear any complaints.” Brooke said confidently, raising her eyebrow at Vanessa, who seemed to shrink under her gaze. 

“I’m not complaining, B, I promise…” Vanessa whispered back, placing her own hand over the hand that was on her face. Brooke leaned in extremely close to Vanessa’s face but didn’t kiss her, their mouths were less than an inch apart but Brooke Lynn didn’t move. As soon as Vanessa tried to lean in and kiss her, Brooke pulled back. 

“I don’t think so, babe. You can kiss me again when you’ve earned my forgiveness.” Brooke said with a grin as she slowly walked out of the room and joined the other girls’ downstairs, leaving Vanessa sitting by herself in her armchair, turned on and disappointed. 

\--- 

Now: 

After they had made out for a while, the two girls fell asleep in Brooke’s bed. Brooke was laying on her back while Vanessa had her arm wrapped around Brooke’s waist, her leg thrown over her body and her head was resting on Brooke’s chest. 

Brooke was the first to wake up. She started to stroke Vanessa’s back softly and placed small, gentle kisses on her forehead. Vanessa’s eyes began to flutter as she woke up and immediately made eye contact with Brooke. The two of them had massive smiles on their faces as they woke up together. 

“Hey.” Brooke said, her voice raspy from just waking up. 

“Hi.” Vanessa whispered softly as she wrapped her arm tighter around Brooke’s waist. They continued cuddling in silence for a bit before Brooke got up, with a lot of protests from Vanessa, and opened up the curtains. It was only six o’clock in the evening so it was still a bit bright out, the sun was only beginning to set. She got back into bed and her arms immediately found themselves wrapping around Vanessa’s body.

“We should go to the park tomorrow. Spend the whole day together.” Brooke suggested and Vanessa’s face lit up in delight. 

“Can we have a picnic?” Vanessa asked excitedly. Brooke nodded in agreement and Vanessa sat up, mentally preparing which outfit she was going to wear. 

“Can we feed the ducks?” Vanessa asked again. Brooke laughed at Vanessa’s excitement and sat up alongside her.

“You really haven’t changed since you were ten, have you? You still love doing the same things,” Brooke smiled as she spoke and Vanessa laughed softly in response. “But yes, we can feed the ducks.” Vanessa grinned and laid back down on the bed. She felt happy and content for the first time in a long time. Brooke’s arms embraced her yet again and she couldn’t help but feel that maybe, just maybe, everything would be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come talk to me on tumblr: kikimateohytes


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kameron decides to stir some shit right when Brooke and Vanessa start to be happy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm soooo sorry that this chapter took me so long to upload, online classes really are not it lol. I hope you enjoy this chapter, it took me so long to write and although I'm still not 100% happy with it, I really want to move on to the next few chapters because I'm super excited for those! I hope you guys are all doing well and enjoy!

It was a cold October morning in New York City. The air was crisp and clean and the sun was shining low in the sky, not really giving out heat but still letting its presence be known. The leaves on the trees were slowly getting ready to turn brown and gently fall off and land on the sidewalk. At the moment, they were a vibrant red colour – the same colour as Kameron’s hair. 

She had walked up the street and into the hotel that Brooke and her mom lived in, ready to surprise her old friend from boarding school. She stepped into the elevator with purpose. She was ready to become a part of Brooke’s life again. She had missed her and was simply not satisfied with the way things had ended between them. 

She was wearing dark grey skinny jeans and a black leather jacket with black boots to match. Her auburn hair was curled to perfection in a half-up, half-down hairstyle and she had sunglasses resting on top of her head too. 

The elevator doors opened and Kameron stepped into the hallway of the Hytes’ penthouse. It was looking a bit like a bombsite at the moment. There were paint swatches on the wall, a big folder of fabric swatches on the coffee table and the carpet had been taken up, leaving a cold grey floor in its place.

Kameron spotted a blonde middle-aged woman in the kitchen area typing away busily on her laptop. Her hair was the same shade of blonde as Brooke’s was and she was quite tall – Kameron reckoned she would still be almost six feet without her six-inch stilettos on – and came to the conclusion that she was in fact Brooke’s mother. Kameron smoothed her hair out and confidently walked over to the kitchen. 

“Mrs Hytes?” she asked quietly, trying her best to sound as polite as possible. Mrs Hytes was visibly startled by Kameron and didn’t try to hide it. 

“Jesus Christ! Who the hell are you?” Mrs Hytes asked, sounding annoyed at being scared in her own home. 

“I’m so sorry to bother you, Mrs Hytes. My name is Kameron Michaels. I was in boarding school with Brooke Lynn last year and we became really good friends. I decided to come and surprise her.” Kameron explained sweetly with a sickening smile on her face. She was desperate to impress Brooke’s mom. 

“Kameron…I don’t remember her mentioning a Kameron. I must’ve forgotten, I’ll go and fetch her for you, dear. Just wait here.” Mrs Hytes said as she closed her laptop and walked up the stairs to get her daughter.

Brooke Lynn was on cloud nine. Vanessa had left her apartment late last night and she was getting to spend the entire day with her again. They had planned to have a picnic in Central Park and Brooke was positive they would end up going back to one of their houses and hanging out all night again. She couldn’t wait. 

Since it was slightly cold outside, she decided to wear her denim skinny jeans and a pale blue top since Vanessa had told her how good that colour looked on her. She threw her leather jacket in her bag in case it got too cold and was ready to go. She had ordered macaroons and some other French pastries that she knew Vanessa would love and they were gonna pick them up on their way to the park. Their perfect day was all planned out. 

So when Brooke’s mom walked into her bedroom and informed her that Kameron Michaels was waiting downstairs for her, needless to say, Brooke was extremely pissed. She stormed out of her bedroom and walked down the stairs filled with rage. All of her memories from boarding school came flooding back to her and she was not happy with any of them. 

After they had drunkenly hooked up right after Brooke had finished crying and professing her love for Vanessa, Kameron had been acting really weird. Brooke wanted to just put it in the past and keep being friends but it seemed like Kameron was head over heels in love with Brooke. 

Everywhere Brooke went, Kameron wasn’t far behind. She followed her constantly and when they weren’t together, she was repetitively texting her. Brooke felt like she couldn’t get a moment of peace as Kameron had managed to make herself a part of every minute of Brooke’s day. 

Of course, Brooke was too uncomfortable to say anything to her. She had only been at the school for a couple of months and was finally starting to form good friendships and get used to her new life there and she didn’t wanna start drama by telling Kameron to back off. 

But when she came back from her sociology class one day and found Kameron in her dorm room lying in her bed, she had lost it. She told Kameron that she was a psycho and to leave her alone and predictably, Kameron was outraged. She said she had presumed they were dating after what had happened which prompted Brooke to kick her out of her room and locked the door behind her. 

They never spoke again after that day. Anytime Kameron saw Brooke, she walked in the opposite direction and when they had some of the same classes together, Brooke could feel Kameron’s angry eyes piercing into her body.

A couple of weeks later, Kameron had left the boarding school and Brooke was relieved at the thought of never having to see the girl again. So why the hell was she currently standing in Brooke’s kitchen like nothing had ever happened?

“What the hell are you doing here?” Brooke shouted as she walked down the stairs. Kameron turned around to face her and was unaffected by Brooke’s rage. 

“Brooke! I missed you so much!” Kameron said excitedly as she stepped forward with her arms wide open for a hug, which made Brooke immediately step back away from her. 

“What are you doing here, Kameron? Why are you in my house? You know I want nothing to do with you.” Brooke said while squeezing her fists together. This situation was making her unbelievably stressed. She was starting to feel very overwhelmed and anxious at the thought of Vanessa walking in and seeing Kameron. She wanted to get Kameron out as soon as possible so she could avoid that from happening. 

“I’m visiting New York for a while so I thought I’d surprise you…I thought you’d be happy to see me.” Kameron said disappointedly as if Brooke had invited her there. 

“Why would I be excited to see you? You literally stalked me for months, Kameron, it was creepy.” 

“I’ve changed! I promise you I’ve changed, I’m not crazy anymore. I take my meds now and I have no desire to follow you around.” Kameron explained proudly but Brooke simply didn’t care. 

“Listen, I don’t care what you’ve done but you have to leave. I’m busy, I have other plans that don’t involve you and I want you to leave. Now.” Brooke said forcefully, gesturing to the elevator to show Kameron the way out. But in a cruel twist of fate, as soon as Brooke pointed towards the elevator, the doors opened and Vanessa walked out into Brooke’s apartment. 

Vanessa looked perfect for the picnic date she was about to have with Brooke. She was wearing a red sundress because she knew that red always looked good on her. She was carrying a blanket and a picnic basket and she had surprisingly made most of the food herself with only minimal help from her private chef. She had a big smile on her face as soon as she saw Brooke but that smile faltered a little bit and her eyes narrowed as soon as she noticed Kameron. 

“Hey, B…who’s this?” Vanessa asked as calmly as she could. Kameron immediately stepped forward and held out her hand so that Vanessa could shake it. 

“Hi, I’m Kameron. A friend from boarding school.” Kameron replied with a small smile on her face, trying her best to get Brooke’s friends to like her. 

“I’m Vanessa.” she replied and shook Kameron’s hand softly as she looked at Brooke in confusion. She noticed that Brooke seemed pissed off and she was hoping that it was because Kameron showed up at the same time of their date and not that Vanessa had interrupted something. 

“Oh…so you’re the Vanessa I’ve heard so much about. Did she finally decide you were good enough for her, Brooke?” Kameron asked, a hand on her hip and a bitchy look on her face. Vanessa was stunned. She didn’t expect Kameron’s personality to flip so suddenly. 

“What is she talking about, Brooke? Good enough for you?” Vanessa asked in confusion, trying to get Brooke to say something since she had been silent for the entire conversation so far. 

“Kameron I’ve said this a million times now, please get the hell out of my apartment.” Brooke said with a firm tone in her voice. She walked over to Vanessa and took her hand, whispering that she was sorry and went to press the elevator button for Kameron to leave. Kameron starts to slowly walk over to the elevator but doesn’t step inside. 

“What’s going on, Brooke?” Vanessa asked quietly, trying her best to get some answers. 

“Yeah, Brooke, tell her everything that happened with us.” Kameron says in a mocking tone, leaning against the wall and still not getting in the elevator. 

“I swear to God, Kameron! Whatever you think is going on between us is so far in the past that I can’t even remember it anymore! We’re not friends, we haven’t spoken in almost a year so just get out before I call security on your ass!” Brooke yelled and Vanessa was a bit taken aback, she had never seen Brooke shout so loudly and be so overcome with anger like that. Kameron rolled her eyes and laughed slightly as she slowly walked into the elevator and put her hand on her hip. 

“Oh, Brooke! Before I go, just remember that when you’re inevitably heartbroken over her again, I’ll be here for you…like I was last time.” Kameron said with a wink in Vanessa’s direction and the elevator doors closed on her. 

Brooke and Vanessa were silent for an abnormally long time after Kameron left. Brooke was in a state of panic thinking of how Vanessa was going to react and Vanessa was angry. Also jealous…but mostly angry.

How dare someone make a comment like that about Brooke to her? She was the most popular girl on the Upper East Side and it was a shock to her that anyone would even dream of speaking like that to her. She wanted to focus on her anger but deep down, she was mostly feeling insecure and jealous. Her and Brooke hadn’t had sex yet and clearly Brooke had been intimate with Kameron. That brought up a ton of feelings within Vanessa that she didn’t understand how to process. 

On the other hand, Brooke didn’t know what to do. Should she pretend like what happened with Kameron just now wasn’t a big deal and get back to their day? Or should she address it with Vanessa and be completely honest about the whole situation and tell her everything? She looked at Vanessa and noticed how she had gone from seeming very angry to something that Brooke couldn’t put her finger on in just a few moments. 

“Do you wanna get out of here? Go on a walk or something?” Brooke asked weakly, clearly unsure as to what she should say or do right now. Vanessa nodded slowly and put the picnic basket down on the floor and pressed the button for the elevator while slowly wiping a tear away from her cheek that had fallen. Brooke’s heart sank as she watched Vanessa be so visibly upset and couldn’t figure out what to do about it. 

They walked in silence for a while before they ended up in Ruppert Park, a small outdoor area on the Upper East Side. They sat down on an empty bench and once again, Brooke was unsure about how to start the conversation that they desperately needed to have. 

“How does she know who I am?” Vanessa asked softly. Her eyes were looking down at the ground instead of at Brooke who was sitting beside her. Brooke took a shaky deep breath before explaining. 

“I talked about you a lot in boarding school…especially when I was drunk. Mainly about how I felt about you.” 

“You told her I broke your heart?” Vanessa looked up directly into Brooke’s eyes and could see how panicked Brooke was.

“No…I was just really upset that I didn’t get to see you anymore. I was in a really bad mental state then so as soon as I had even a tiny bit of alcohol, I ended up crying about you not being there,” Brooke explained while keeping eye contact with Vanessa. “V, I’m really sorry she just showed up out of nowhere. I haven’t spoken to her in almost a year and—” Vanessa interrupted her rambling. 

“Did you two date or what?” she asked, straight to the point. Brooke looked upset as she remembered what happened between her and Kameron. 

“No…we drunkenly hooked up but it meant nothing to me. It only happened once and I regretted it as soon as it happened…but she started following me around constantly and wouldn’t stop so I told her to leave me alone and then she left.” Vanessa’s eyes widened in shock as she tried to process the two bits of information; Brooke had in fact hooked up with Kameron, but Kameron was also a crazy stalker…Vanessa was not expecting that. 

“Why didn’t you tell me about that, B? I thought we had something going on here but you didn’t even tell me about her…” Vanessa was now more upset than she was jealous. She was surprised she wasn’t angry and yelling at Brooke but she took this as a sign that she was maturing in being able to express her emotions. 

“Come on, V, it’s not like we were dating and I cheated on you or something. I didn’t think I had to tell you because it meant so little to me.” Brooke explained and hoped that she was getting the point across to Vanessa as sincerely as she meant it. 

Vanessa broke eye contact with Brooke to stare at the ground again. Deep down she knew that she shouldn’t be as upset about Kameron as she was but there was that little piece of her that was so insecure about it that she just couldn’t let it go. 

“I regret everything I did with her, Nessa. I never had any feelings for her, I only did what I did to actually try and feel something because I was suffering so much mentally. She’s nothing compared to you, V, I’m so sorry.” Brooke had a few tears rolling down her cheeks and Vanessa used her thumb to gently wipe them away. 

“I’m sorry for overreacting, Brooke, I was just mad that I didn’t know about it…not mad that it happened. It was over a year ago, it’s in the past. Let’s just forget about it, okay?” Vanessa said with a soft smile on her face which Brooke returned as she nodded happily. Vanessa wrapped her arms around Brooke’s neck and they hugged each other tightly. Brooke felt all the panic and anxiety that had been in her body for the last hour melt away from Vanessa’s touch.

“What do you think about me calling Dorota to bring the picnic basket here? The day isn’t completely ruined yet!” Vanessa said excitedly and Brooke agreed straight away. Vanessa took out her phone and called Dorota, who was there in less than fifteen minutes with the picnic basket that Vanessa had prepared earlier. 

Brooke was completely relaxed again and was back to being her usual self which made Vanessa really happy. But Brooke could tell that something was still bothering Vanessa, despite how she was trying to put on a brave face. She decided to question her about it now instead of waiting so they could try and enjoy their day with absolutely no more problems. 

“Is everything okay, V? You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but—” 

“No, I’m fine, I just…Brooke, she knows about me now. That I like girls,” Vanessa said, whispering the last part just in case anyone in the empty park would overhear her. “Nobody knows, my parents don’t know, Silky and Akeria don’t know…what if she tells everyone? I don’t know if I’m ready for that.” Brooke took her hand and stroked it with her thumb. 

“Can I ask why you don’t want anyone to know?” Brooke asked tenderly. 

“I just…I don’t know how my mom would react. She didn’t take it well when my dad came out and they divorced and I know that’s a completely different situation than mine but…I don’t know, B. I’m scared about what people will think.” Vanessa explained with an apprehensive and tense tone to her voice.

“You don’t think your mom would support you?” Brooke was surprised that Vanessa felt that way. She had always seen Mrs Mateo as a fun and loving mother to Vanessa, she never thought that she wouldn’t support Vanessa in who she decided to loved.

“I truly don’t know, Brooke. It scares me too much to even think about it.” Vanessa’s eyes were starting to fill with tears again and Brooke’s heart couldn’t bear it. Vanessa lay down so that her head was resting on Brooke’s lap and Brooke played with her hair delicately. 

“I’ll be here for you no matter what happens, Ness. I promise. But I don’t think Kameron would do that to you. She was a nice girl before all this happened. I think she’d try and get back at me because I’m the one that hurt her, not you.” 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right…thanks, B.” Vanessa leaned up and quickly stole a kiss from Brooke’s lips before returning back to her place of rest on Brooke’s lap. If Brooke didn’t know any better, she would think that Vanessa was about to fall asleep in her lap. But she didn’t mind, if it meant that Vanessa would be happy, she would sacrifice sitting in an uncomfortable position in the cold for her. 

\--- 

Later on that night, Kameron was still in a rage. 

She couldn’t believe that Brooke Lynn had kicked her out. She was so used to getting what she wanted that when Brooke had said no to her, yet again, she was outraged…and all her mind could focus on was revenge. 

She was happy that she had spent the last couple of weeks following Brooke around since she had moved back to New York. She had gotten to learn who Brooke spent her time with and where her favourite places were. All of these things would be important for when she eventually won Brooke back. But she had really struck gold when she followed Brooke to Central Park in the rain and Vanessa had shown up. 

She remembered Brooke mentioning how closeted Vanessa was when they were in boarding school and Kameron hoped that had not changed. When she saw Brooke and Vanessa kiss, she knew she had to get a picture. So she took out her camera phone and got her evidence. 

Now, all she had to do was send that picture in to Gossip Girl and Vanessa’s little secret would be out for the whole world to know. Vanessa would shut Brooke out of her life and try to deny the fact that she was gay so she could save her reputation, and Kameron could swoop in and be there for Brooke when she inevitably had her heart broken. 

As she pressed “send”, she smiled to herself and daydreamed about when she would have Brooke all to herself…she always got what she wanted. 

\--- 

Ring the alarm bells! Gossip Girl here, and wow, do I have some major news for you. And believe me, this is gonna change everything. Stand by, Upper East Siders. You know you love me. XOXO, Gossip Girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come talk to me on tumblr: kikimateohytes


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first of many dramatic chapters is here hehe prepare to feel very bad for Vanessa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I enjoyed writing this chapter way too much lol I love the drama! I hope you guys are all good and thank you to the angels who left comments on the last chapter, I love you all! Hope you enjoy!

It was an unusually warm Monday in Autumn when Vanessa Mateo’s life was changed forever.

Brooke Lynn, Vanessa, Silky and Akeria were sitting in the cafeteria of their school. Of course, they were sitting at the centre table due to the fact that they were always the centre of attention. They were all eating salads (even though Vanessa hated salads) and they were all having a pretty normal day. 

Brooke and Vanessa had spent the weekend together just hanging out and Vanessa realised how much she missed spending time with Silky and Akeria as well. She missed their shady comments and how they could make her laugh in any situation. She missed her girls and she knew they missed her too. 

“Thanks for finally including Silky and I in your plans, ladies. Have you seen anyone else other than each other these last few days?” Akeria asked sarcastically as she raised her eyebrow at both Brooke and Vanessa. Akeria meant the comment purely as a joke because no one knew what was really going on between Vanessa and Brooke. But Vanessa immediately stopped the conversation in its tracks.

“Shut up, Akeria. Maybe if you guys were more interesting then I’d wanna spend time with you.” Vanessa said as she winked at Akeria to let her know she was joking. It was true that Vanessa had missed her best friends recently. But they didn’t need to know that. Everybody at the table laughed at Akeria and Vanessa slightly roasting each other and Vanessa was just happy to be with her friends, even if she was eating salad.

“Shit!” Brooke exclaimed as she looked at her open planner in front of her. 

“What’s up?” Silky asked, trying to peek into her planner.

“I forgot about my history homework, it’s due in like thirty minutes.” Brooke explained.

“Of course you did.” Vanessa replied sarcastically, never surprised when Brooke’s mind forgets all about her academic work. Akeria and Silky laughed at Vanessa’s response as they were also not surprised. Vanessa was feeling smug as even though she had spent the entire weekend with Brooke, she had managed to get all of her homework done whereas Brooke hadn’t even touched her school supplies. 

“I’m gonna go get it from my locker, you guys better be ready to help me write about the renaissance.” Brooke said seriously as she packed all of her stuff up and ran to her locker as quickly as she could. Vanessa rolled her eyes and Akeria opened her phone up ready to text the latest boy she was interested in. 

Simultaneously, all of the cell phones in the cafeteria beeped with the same noise and that could mean only one thing: a Gossip Girl blast. Everyone had been on edge when she had posted that there was some big news coming and lots of people had been extremely worried that it would be something about them. 

Vanessa ignored her phone as she did for most blasts. She didn’t care about Gossip Girl at all, it was always stupid rumours that either never turned out to be true or they were about people she didn’t care about. Sure, she made it onto the site quite often but not for anything bad. It was usually just people reporting where she was, who she was with and what she was doing. But this time, she wished she had opened her phone immediately so she could have made it out of the cafeteria faster. 

Everyone at the school was glued to their phone screens, their mouths hanging open in shock. They were all looking at a close-up picture of Brooke Lynn and Vanessa kissing under a bridge in Central Park. And there wasn’t just one picture, there were four, all from different angles. 

Vanessa could see that a lot of people were looking in their direction so she assumed the blast must be about either Silky or Akeria because they were also staring at their phones in shock. 

“What’s going on?” Vanessa asked, stabbing her fork into a piece of lettuce and putting it into her mouth. 

“What’s this, V?” Silky flipped her phone screen around so Vanessa could see and what she saw made her stomach flip. 

“Oh my God…” Vanessa whispered in horror. She looked up at the people around them and realised that they were not staring in the direction of her table, they were staring directly at her. 

She could feel her chest tighten and she was struggling to breathe. All she wanted to do was run but it was like her feet were glued to the floor and she couldn’t move. Her hands started to shake and her vision was going slightly blurry. She was having a panic attack. 

Akeria reached her hand out and placed it on top of Vanessa’s and asked her something, but Vanessa couldn’t hear what she said. She just knew that she needed to get out of there immediately. 

She pushed Akeria’s hand off of hers and grabbed her things and ran. She had never run out of a place like that before and she never wanted to experience it again. Everybody was staring at her and she felt ashamed of herself. The thought of people discussing her private life was making her feel worthless, like nobody had any respect for her. 

She couldn’t believe that her secret was out and that she wasn’t the one who got to reveal it. She felt absolutely violated. She never wanted to return to school again. Akeria tried to get up and run after her but Silky stopped her saying that Vanessa probably wanted to be alone right now. 

That was when Brooke returned back to their lunch table. 

“What’s happening? Where did Vanessa go?” Silky and Akeria couldn’t do anything but stare at her with sympathy in their eyes. 

\---

Vanessa ran into her apartment with the same speed she had when she ran out of school. Tears were still streaming down her face and usually she would have been embarrassed at the thought of someone seeing her in that kind of state, but she had way bigger issues now.

She wished Brooke was there when it had happened. Maybe she would have been able to calm her down or they could have left together but in that moment, all eyes were on her and she couldn’t handle it. 

She ran straight to the couch and collapsed on it which caused a very worried Dorota to come and sit beside her. Dorota hugged her while she cried and asked her what happened. Vanessa couldn’t physically get any words out so she just handed Dorota her phone and showed her the pictures.

“Oh, Miss Vanessa, I’m so sorry…” Dorota said sympathetically. She had always had her suspicions about Vanessa and Brooke’s relationship but of course she never assumed anything or brought it up with Vanessa. She knew better than that. It was much easier to get Vanessa to talk about something if she was the one to bring it up and Dorota had learned that a very long time ago since she had been looking after Vanessa since she was a child. 

“Everybody knows, Dorota…I didn’t even get to come out how I wanted to.” Vanessa said in between sobs and Dorota’s heart ached in her chest for Vanessa. Dorota was worried about how this would impact Vanessa’s life in the future so she decided to reassure her.

“I will always love you and support you, Miss Vanessa, and I’m sure other people will too. It’s just a scandal, it will blow over soon.” Vanessa had stopped crying but her eyes were very red and swollen. 

“You didn’t see how they looked at me, Dorota. I can never go back there again.” She replied with an extremely hoarse voice. At that moment, her mother walked into the room with her phone in her hand. She held the phone out in Vanessa and Dorota’s direction and the picture of Vanessa and Brooke was pulled up on the screen. 

“Would you care to explain this please, Vanessa?,” Mrs Mateo asked directly, with her hand on her hip. Vanessa was yet again frozen in shock. She didn’t anticipate having to have this conversation with her mother so soon as she usually got home from work pretty late in the evening. She was hoping she had at least another couple of hours to mentally prepare for dealing with her mom but apparently not. “Come on, answer me!” Her mother asked, her voice getting louder as she spoke. 

“Mrs Mateo, I don’t know if now is the best time—” Dorota began to try and get her to realise how upset and fragile Vanessa was in that moment but Mrs Mateo didn’t seem to care.

“Dorota, get out. This is between my daughter and I.” Mrs Mateo replied, pointing to the door that lead into the kitchen. Dorota got up and quickly walked out, but not before squeezing Vanessa’s hand and whispering that it would be okay. 

“Mom, please don’t be mad…” Vanessa whispered, her voice was barely able to be heard by her mother. 

“Please don’t be mad? I don’t know what to think. Why didn’t you tell me any of this? I don’t even recognise you anymore.” 

“What do you mean you don’t recognise me? I’m the same person that I always was.” Vanessa replied, her voice also getting a lot louder now too.

“I’m not so sure about that.” Mrs Mateo replied quietly with a disappointed look on her face. She walked out of the room as quickly as she had come in and went into the elevator. Vanessa couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t believe that her mom didn’t support her liking girls. She had always been afraid of it happening but deep down had always thought that her mom would support her no matter what…and that clearly was not the case now. She started to cry again, not able to stop the sobs from coming out. 

The elevator doors opened again and Vanessa jumped to turn around and see who it was, hoping that her mom had changed her mind and had come to apologise. But it was Brooke Lynn. 

“Hey…I just saw your mom leave, are you okay? What happened?” she immediately walks over to the couch and wrapped Vanessa up in her arms, her hand stroking her back in an attempt to soothe Vanessa as she cried.

“She hates me.” Vanessa stated and Brooke’s eyes narrowed in confusion. Mrs Mateo had seemed perfectly normal to Brooke when they ran into each other in the lobby of Vanessa’s building. 

“What do you mean?” Brooke asked.

“She doesn’t support me at all. I don’t know what to do, Brooke…” Vanessa whispered the last part and immediately started sobbing again. Brooke could feel her shirt getting damp from Vanessa’s tears. 

“I’m so sorry, Nessa…” Brooke whispered back, placing a light kiss to her forehead. She didn’t know what to do to support Vanessa other than be there for her and listen to her. She wished she could make it all better but she didn’t know how. Vanessa took a few large deep breaths in and out and pushed herself out of Brooke’s embrace. 

“Can you go? I don’t wanna be around you right now.” Vanessa avoided looking into Brooke’s eyes as she spoke.

“What? Why?” Brooke asked in confusion, not knowing why Vanessa wanted her gone. 

“Well, it was obviously Kameron who sent those pictures to Gossip Girl.” Vanessa stated.

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking…” Brooke agreed. She had assured Vanessa that she didn’t think Kameron would do that to her and Vanessa had believed her. Of course she felt a little bit guilty about it but she hadn’t lied to Vanessa. She truly didn’t believe that they would ever be in this situation. 

“This is your fault, Brooke…you’re the one who brought Kameron into my life.” Vanessa argued.

“Seriously? That’s not fair and you know it!” Brooke was surprised that Vanessa was trying to blame it all on her but she knew how emotionally fragile Vanessa must’ve been in that moment so she tried not to take it personally.

“So you’re not gonna leave?” Vanessa asked impatiently.

“No, I’m not gonna leave you right now.” Brooke replied, trying to at least be there for Vanessa in a friendly way.

“Then I’m gonna go. I need to go on a walk to calm down,” Vanessa grabbed her jacket and her purse and Brooke immediately started to do the same. “I need to go alone.” 

“Oh…okay then, if that’s what you need then that’s fine.” Brooke replied, trying to give Vanessa what she needed. Vanessa nodded and strutted out of the room, leaving Brooke alone sitting on her couch in her apartment. Brooke didn’t know what to do. Thankfully, Dorota came in to offer some well needed advice.

“Sorry Miss Brooke, I couldn’t help but hear everything.” Dorota smiled sheepishly and sat down opposite Brooke. 

“It’s okay, Dorota, don’t worry about it.” Brooke smiled a small smile back to Vanessa’s housekeeper.

“You know, Miss Brooke, I have been looking after Miss Vanessa for a long time now. I know she didn’t mean what she said, didn’t mean to blame you, she’s just stressed and upset and needed to find someone to take it out on…usually it’s me.” Dorota said with a laugh at the end of her sentence.

“I know…I just want her to be okay.” Brooke said quietly. 

“Why don’t you go home and get some rest, Miss Brooke? This “scandal” is affecting you too, you can talk to Vanessa later.” Dorota suggested and Brooke nodded in response.

“Yeah, okay, that’s a good idea. Just please call me as soon as she gets back, okay?” Brooke pleaded as she started to put her coat on.

“Of course, Miss Brooke. I’ll see you later.” Dorota assured her and Brooke walked out of the Mateo’s apartment and back to her own house where she crawled into bed and tried to fall asleep. 

\--- 

After trying to sleep and failing for three hours straight, Brooke decided she might as well go to the Mateo’s apartment and wait for Vanessa to return. Dorota still hadn’t called her so she assumed that Vanessa still hadn’t come back from her walk. 

Brooke got a taxi to Vanessa’s apartment and got there relatively quickly. She paid the driver and raced up to Vanessa’s floor, hoping that maybe she would be there. She exited the elevator and found Mrs Mateo working on her laptop on the couch that she and Vanessa had been sitting on earlier. 

“Mrs Mateo?” Brooke attempted to make her presence known. She didn’t want to interrupt Mrs Mateo but she also didn’t want her to think that someone was breaking into her home. Mrs Mateo turned around and had a warm smile on her face.

“Oh, hello, Brooke Lynn. Come sit down.” Mrs Mateo replied kindly and Brooke walked over slowly, sitting down awkwardly. 

“Is Vanessa home?” Brooke asked immediately. She didn’t want to sit and catch up with Mrs Mateo right now, she wanted to make sure that Vanessa was okay and be there for her however she could. Mrs Mateo closed her laptop and put it on the coffee table in front of her.

“About that…so I’m sure Vanessa told you that I didn’t react to her news in the best way possible,” Mrs Mateo said with a guilty look on her face. Brooke nodded which prompted Mrs Mateo to continue. “Well, we had a long conversation about it and I apologised. Of course I support my daughter one hundred percent, she’s the thing I love most in this world. I was just brought back to when her father told me the news and didn’t react how I should have reacted, which was selfish of me. But we talked it out and everything is okay between us now.” 

“That’s great, Mrs Mateo,” Brooke said cheerfully, happy that Vanessa had her mother’s support. “Is she upstairs? I really want to talk to her.”

“Here’s the thing, Brooke…all of this information being public knowledge is really new to Vanessa and she’s just not sure if she can handle it right now. She can’t take everyone judging her and talking about her life all the time. So she’s decided to take a little break from school and go to live with her father in Paris for a while. She left about half an hour ago,” Brooke felt her heart stop. Mrs Mateo immediately noticed Brooke’s reaction and felt awful for her. “Brooke, it’s only for a little while, I promise. I’ll want her back as soon as possible too.” Mrs Mateo tried to joke to lighten the mood but it didn’t work well. 

“What airport is she at?” It was as if Brooke didn’t hear anything Mrs Mateo had said once she said that Vanessa was leaving. She didn’t need to. She already knew what she was going to do. She was going to go and stop Vanessa from leaving. Mrs Mateo told her what airport Vanessa was flying out of and also tried to tell her that she was wasting her time because Vanessa’s mind couldn’t be changed.

But Brooke didn’t care. She raced out of the door and immediately hailed a taxi. She was going to get her girl back. 

\--- 

Brooke’s taxi pulled up onto the runway at a small airport for private jets in New York. She sighed a massive sigh of relief when she noticed that Vanessa’s plane hadn’t taken off yet. There were people loading her luggage onto the plane and Vanessa was just getting out of the car, about to get on board. 

“Vanessa!” Brooke called out as loudly as she could, wanting to be heard over the noise of the loud engines. Vanessa’s head snapped back to the direction of Brooke Lynn’s voice and Brooke could tell by her face that she was in complete shock that Brooke was there. 

Vanessa walked over to where Brooke was standing. It was a cold night and she was huddled up in her big winter coat with a scarf and hat on as well. Her eyes were red and puffy and it was clear that she had been crying again. 

“Who told you I was here?” Vanessa asked.

“Your mom…why are you leaving, V?” Vanessa could hear the sadness in Brooke’s voice and it made her heart ache, but she knew leaving was what she had to do.

“That’s a dumb question, Brooke. You know why I’m leaving,” Vanessa replied, rolling her eyes in annoyance. “You don’t understand what this feels like for me. It’s ruined me.” 

“No…maybe I don’t understand what this feels like for you. But what I know is how you felt when I left without telling you,” Brooke took Vanessa’s hand in hers and Vanessa avoided eye contact with her. She knew that if she looked into Brooke’s eyes, she would be convinced to stay. “Vanessa, please…stay. Don’t let some stupid rumours make you run away like it did with me. Like it does with everyone in our world.” 

“Everything’s horrible, Brooke. My whole life has fallen apart.” Vanessa mumbled while looking at the floor, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. Brooke took her hand and gently held Vanessa’s chin, moving it up so they were making eye contact.

“So rebuild it. You’re a Mateo, remember? People don’t tell you who you are, you tell them. Stay. I’ll be by your side the entire time. And if anyone tries to make you feel bad, they’ll have me to deal with.” Vanessa couldn’t hold her tears in any longer and Brooke wiped them away softly.

“I’m so embarrassed.” Vanessa stated, holding onto Brooke’s hand and shivering because of the cold. 

“So what? Start over. It can be done. We can get through this together.” 

“You promise?” Vanessa asked in a quiet tone of voice. Brooke Lynn nodded and wrapped her arms tight around Vanessa, letting Vanessa rest her head on her chest. 

“I promise.” Brooke whispered in her ear. Brooke also had a few tears running down her face, mostly from relief due to the fact that she had convinced Vanessa to stay. They stayed hugging for a couple of minutes because Vanessa just wouldn’t let go. Eventually, she did and turned her attention to the people on the steps of the private jet waiting for her to get on.

“Stop, guys…I’m going home.” She yelled over to them, making Brooke grin with satisfaction. They got back into the taxi that had brought Brooke to the runway and went home. Brooke got her girl back. 

\--- 

One good scandal deserves another. Who’s going down next? Everybody, if V has anything to say about it. You know you love me. XOXO, Gossip Girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr: kikimateohytes


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanessa focuses on what she does best...revenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaah I really hope this chapter makes sense!! It's loosely based on the GG episode where Blair confronts Georgina and gets her parents to send her away which, in theory, should be easy enough to write but I'm not sure if I conveyed it properly lol. 
> 
> My country is most likely going back into a full blown lockdown tomorrow and I hope that all of you lovely people are keeping safe and that everything is going well for you! This year has been such a shitshow but at least we have Branjie and all their crazy antics to keep us clowns entertained lol. Hope you enjoy!!

Brooke was about to kill her mother.

It was one of Brooke’s least favourite times of year. Her mother was planning the annual charity ball for the Manhattan Women’s League that she was apart of which meant that tensions were running high twenty-four seven in the Hytes’ household. Brooke had spent her morning on the phone to caterers and decorators since her mother was forcing her to help plan the event and she was miserable and not to mention, extremely bored.

She had stopped to make herself a cup of coffee to try and get some energy to push through the torture that was being enforced upon her but her mom saw that she had stopped working which prompted a screaming match between the two of them. Brooke Lynn was close to pouring the hot coffee over her mother’s head if she didn’t stop with the constant nagging.

Her mom left the room to go check that her outfit for the ball was ready and Brooke noticed her phone lighting up with a picture of Vanessa’s face on it, which meant that Vanessa was calling her. Vanessa had taken the picture of herself on Brooke’s phone and set it as the contact photo for herself. It was a cute picture of her winking with her tongue out and it made Brooke happy every time she saw it. She quickly answered the call and prayed that her mother didn’t come back downstairs and catch her.

“B! Thank God you picked up, I’m soooo bored!,” Vanessa exclaimed as if she had been trying to get in contact with Brooke for hours when in reality, this was the first time she had called her. Brooke chuckled and quickly double checked that her mom hadn’t come back downstairs. “Can we hang out or something? I finished all my homework and I have nothing to do now.” Brooke rolled her eyes fondly at the fact that Vanessa already had all of her homework done at 11am on a Saturday morning. 

“I wish I could, V, but this stupid ball is taking up all my time. I swear to god, Ness, if she even catches me on the phone to you, she might kill me.” Brooke replied, being completely serious about how her mother would react but Vanessa just laughed in response.

“You think you’re gonna be busy all day?” Vanessa asked and Brooke swore she could hear that Vanessa was pouting from the tone of her voice.

“I hope not…it depends on how crazy my mom is later on. We could probably go fir dinner later if you want?” Brooke asked hopefully and before she could hear Vanessa’s response, her phone was snatched from her hand. She quickly turned around and saw her mother putting her cell phone up to her ear.

“Vanessa, darling, Brooke and I are very busy over here. She’ll call you when she’s free, okay?” Mrs Hytes said and without letting Vanessa reply, she hung up the phone and handed it back to Brooke Lynn who was furious. Brooke had to take several deep breaths before being able to think properly again and quickly sent Vanessa an apology text saying that she would be buying them dinner tonight. 

“Brooke took one more deep breath to mentally prepare herself for dealing with her mother again and got back to work. 

\--- 

Vanessa was bored. She had finished her homework, watched Dorota organise her handbag collection and had already started studying for an exam that was a few months ago. Usually she was good at entertaining herself and finding things to do when she didn’t have plans but she found it hard to focus on other things when she knew that she could be spending time with Brooke Lynn. So when Brooke’s mom had hung up on her and Brooke had said they would still get dinner later, Vanessa had to come to terms with the fact that she had an entire day to kill. 

Normally she would go shopping or try out a new restaurant or simply just hang out with her friends but ever since Gossip Girl had outed her, she still wasn’t totally comfortable with being out in public alone. She had gone back to school and her friends had not left her side which she was so grateful for. Her life hadn’t changed that much, really. Her mom treated her the same, her friends treated her the same and no one in school had said anything rude to her. But she just wasn’t ready to go back to normal yet. 

There was one thing that had been on her mind a lot since she had been outed though, and that was revenge. She was absolutely furious that Kameron had gotten away with what she did to her. She almost moved to a different country because of what Kameron had done and she couldn’t let it go on any longer without Kameron being punished. 

Akeria had hinted at taking Kameron down a few times but Vanessa had always refused, only because Brooke was there and Brooke didn’t like when Vanessa schemed and planned revenge on people. But as Vanessa was sitting on her bed thinking about the entire situation, she knew there was only one thing to do: call Silky and Akeria and finally plan some revenge on the bitch that tried to ruin her life. 

Silky and Akeria came over immediately, ready to research Kameron Michaels as much as they possibly could. The three of them had their laptops out and were scouring the Internet and all of her social media platforms, determined to find something they could use against her. Unfortunately, Kameron didn’t live in New York since she was originally from Nashville so there wasn’t really anything about her on Gossip Girl and Vanessa was starting to lose hope of ever finding any dirt on her.

“OOH BITCH I’VE GOT IT!” Silky screamed in excitement as she leaped up from the armchair she was sitting on and ran over to the couch opposite her where Akeria and Vanessa were. She sat down in between them the two girls and pointed at a picture of Kameron on her Facebook profile that had been posted about eight months ago. Vanessa quickly did the math in her head and realised that it must’ve been posted just before Kameron had left boarding school after what went down between her and Brooke Lynn. Akeria scrunched her face up in confusion and leaned in to look at the picture up close. 

“What am I supposed to be looking at, Silk?” Akeria asked. Vanessa slightly nodded her head in agreement. 

“Yeah, Silk…I don’t get it.” Silky looked down at the screen and realised that what she had wanted to show them wasn’t on the screen anymore. She clicked the comments on the picture and as the comments tab popped up, it all clicked into place in Vanessa’s mind. 

The comments were two girls, presumably from boarding school, asking Kameron where she had gone and why she had left school suddenly. As Vanessa continued to read the rest of the comments, her eyes went wide and she felt stupid that she had missed this when she had been looking at Kameron’s profile a couple of hours ago. 

There was a comment from none other than Kameron’s mother saying that Kameron had to be checked into a rehab centre because of her anger issues and her dependency on alcohol and drugs. Vanessa thought it was super rude and embarrassing of Kameron’s mother to post that information online but she quickly stopped feeling bad for the girl after she remembered what Kameron had done to her. Then, there was a comment from just two weeks ago, again from Kameron’s mother, saying that Kameron had escaped from rehab and if the girls knew where she was, they should tell her or the police. 

Vanessa’s eyes opened wide in shock, as did Akeria’s while Silky had an extremely proud look on her face. She was thinking she would find an embarrassing photo or some old gossip of Kameron’s that she could use against her, but this was something else entirely. She knew that it could be risky, but she had a chance to get Kameron out of New York and she was definitely going to take that opportunity. 

After brainstorming with Silky and Akeria for an hour or so, she had a plan and she knew what she had to do…and she wasn’t going to stop until that plan succeeded. 

\---

Vanessa walked out of the elevator into the Hytes’ penthouse apartment and walked straight into chaos. Brooke Lynn and her mother were screaming at each other with such intensity that Vanessa secretly wanted to walk back out before either of them saw her. Any other time, she could have easily done that but right now, she had a mission to complete and coming here was the first part of that plan. 

Vanessa pieced together from the screaming and shouting that they seemed to be fighting over the outfit that Brooke had planned to wear to her mother’s ball. Her mom was saying that the dress was too inappropriate and that it made her look like a prostitute and while that made Vanessa very excited to see Brooke in that dress, she pushed it to the back of her mind because she knew she had bigger things to focus on in that moment. 

Mrs Hytes was the first one to notice Vanessa standing in the hallway and didn’t seem too happy that she had shown up to their home unannounced. When Brooke noticed that her mother had gone quiet, she turned around to see what was there and her eyes lit up in excitement when she saw Vanessa standing there and it made Vanessa’s heart melt just a tiny bit. 

“Hey! I know you guys are busy but I just thought I’d come by for a few minutes and bring you both some coffee!” Vanessa handed the paper tray filled with two disposable coffee cups to Brooke who took it graciously and handed the other cup to her mother, who seemed to be a lot more welcoming to Vanessa as soon as she had her first sip of the coffee.

“Thank you Vanessa, darling. You shouldn’t have.” Mrs Hytes said graciously and Vanessa was happy that Brooke’s mom approved of her. Of course, she had known Mrs Hytes for years at this point but it felt different now that her and Brooke were kind of dating. She felt like she had to make a new good impression all over again. 

“I don’t wanna stand in your way or anything, I know how busy you are, I just wanted to drop these off and be on my way. But do you mind if I quickly use your restroom?” Vanessa said politely, while her eyes searched the area they were in for what she needed to complete the plan. Mrs Hytes said that she could go ahead and use the restroom and Brooke was talking about how she wished she could hang out with Vanessa right now, but Vanessa was so distracted once her eyes landed on what she was searching for: Brooke’s cell phone. 

It was on the counter that was directly behind Brooke and Vanessa knew she would have to be extra sneaky to be able to grab it. She leaned in to give Brooke a hug and told her how she wished that she could be hanging out with her too, and while it wasn’t a lie, she did feel kind of guilty for planning revenge on Kameron and not telling Brooke about it. As soon as Brooke hugged her back, Vanessa’s hand quickly grabbed the phone and tried her best to hide it from Brooke. She broke the hug apart and walked over to the bathroom and quickly locked the door. 

The first part of her master plan was to text Kameron on Brooke’s phone pretending to be Brooke and ask her to meet up with her, that way she could guarantee that Kameron would show up. The second part of her plan was being completed by Silky and Akeria at, they were sending Kameron’s parents the information of where Kameron was going to be later on so they could take her home and out of Vanessa’s life permanently. 

She quickly typed in Brooke’s password and thanked god that Brooke hadn’t changed it in years. She scrolled through her contacts and quickly found Kameron’s number, again grateful that Brooke never deleted anyone’s number once she put it into her contacts. She knew she didn’t have a lot of time to waste and she tried to come up with a text that would sound like Brooke had wrote it but it was proving to be kind of difficult for her. 

She decided to keep the text simple and wrote: “Hey Kameron, it’s Brooke. I made a mistake telling you to leave and I wanna talk. Meet me at that bridge in Central Park at 5pm? Don’t text back, Vanessa might see my phone. -Brooke.” 

It had been Akeria’s idea to say that Kameron shouldn’t text back and Vanessa was very appreciative because she didn’t know if she would have thought of that on her own. She wiped the message from Brooke’s phone and pretended to flush the toilet, washed her hands and left the phone on a coffee table outside the bathroom and hoped that Brooke wouldn’t remember exactly where she had put it. 

She said goodbye to Mrs Hytes and gave Brooke a hug and a kiss goodbye and told her she would see her later that night for dinner if Brooke had time. Vanessa was hoping that by the time they went for dinner, Kameron would be gone for good and she wouldn’t have to worry anymore. 

She sent a quick text to Akeria telling her that part one of the plan was done and Akeria text back fast assuring her that part two had been taken care of as well. Vanessa took a deep breathe in to calm her nerves as she mentally prepared herself for the next part. 

Part three of the plan was making sure that Kameron showed up to the park thinking that she was meeting Brooke but instead, she would find Vanessa, Akeria, Silky and her parents ready to take her back to wherever the hell she came from. 

Vanessa couldn’t wait. 

\--- 

Kameron walked into the park and it was safe to say that she was buzzing with excitement. She knew that her plan of outing Vanessa would work eventually but she didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it did. She was so happy that Brooke Lynn had finally come to her senses and realised that Kameron would make a way better girlfriend than Vanessa ever could. She stopped at the bridge that Brooke had mentioned, the one that Brooke and Vanessa had kissed under and waited for Brooke to arrive.

She was looking around and couldn’t see Brooke Lynn’s signature blonde hair anywhere. The only people around were three girls who had their backs to her. She looked down at her phone and opened the text from Brooke to make sure she had the right time and once she confirmed that she did, she was about to call Brooke to ask where she was when she heard a voice say her name.

“Kameron?” Kameron turned around expecting to be met with Brooke’s tall figure but instead, she was met with Vanessa Mateo and her two best friends. Kameron was confused, why was Vanessa here? Why would Brooke tell Vanessa about them meeting up? What was going on? Vanessa could see the confused look on Kameron’s face and couldn’t help but feel pure joy from it.

“Confused? Yeah, you should be.” Akeria said with her hand on her hip.

“You didn’t really think Brooke was gonna show up, did you?” Silky asked with a mocking tone to her voice as her and Akeria tried to supress a laugh. 

“Come on girls, no need to be rude. Let’s just let Kameron know why we’re here and we can get on with the rest of our day.” Vanessa said light heartedly as if she wasn’t about to ruin Kameron’s day.

“What are you talking about? Where the hell is Brooke Lynn?” Kameron said angrily and it was clear that she was about to get extremely pissed off.

“That doesn’t matter, she’s not here. However, there are some people here who have been super worried about you, Kam.” Vanessa pointed behind her and Kameron turned around slowly and was met by the only two people she feared: her mom and dad. When Kameron had escaped from rehab, she knew her dad would be pissed and her mom would be worried but she didn’t really care, she just wanted to get to Brooke Lynn as soon as she could. However, she knew if she got caught, there would be hell to pay for it. 

“Mom, dad…I promise, it’s not what you think, I swear I had to leave, you should have seen how they were treating me—” Kameron was interrupted by her dad as soon as she started her rambling.

“Shut up, Kameron. We’re fed up with your lies.” Kameron’s dad said angrily while her mom just looked extremely disappointed. 

“Mom, you have to believe me!” Kameron said making direct eye contact with her mother.

“Don’t worry Kameron, it’ll be okay.” Vanessa said with a mocking tone of reassurance in her voice. Silky and Akeria were trying not to laugh behind her.

“No, this time it won’t.” Kameron’s mother said with a bitter tone to her voice and it made Silky giggle.

“Or it won’t!,” Vanessa replied and walked over to where Kameron’s parents were standing. “Oh, I almost forgot to give you the information that I discussed with your parents!” Vanessa handed Kameron a pamphlet and Kameron looked down at it in confusion. 

“What’s this?” Kameron asked in a worried tone, as if she didn’t want to know the answer to her own question.

“It’s where you’re going, immediately.” Kameron’s mom said. Before Kameron could even begin to protest, her dad spoke up.

“It’s a school for troubled girls and you won’t be leaving until we see an improvement in your behaviour…and it’s not up for discussion.” Vanessa could see Kameron’s body twitch as if she was about to run but out of nowhere, three security guards walked over to the group and situated themselves around Kameron so she couldn’t run away. Vanessa was impressed by the extra touch that Kameron’s parents added by bringing the guards. She wished she would’ve thought of it. 

Kameron’s father pointed in the direction of the street and began to walk to where their car was parked and two of the security guards started to get closer to Kameron, ready to take her away. Vanessa waved goodbye with a massive smile on her face. As Kameron was being escorted away, Vanessa knew she had to have the last word.

“Oh, and Kameron?,” Vanessa said and Kameron turned around promptly. “Haven’t you heard? I’m the crazy bitch around here. Have fun in your new school.” With that, Vanessa linked arms with Silky and Akeria and they walked away in the opposite direction, holding in their laughter until they were at least a couple more feet away from Kameron and her parents. Once they were gone, they burst into laughter and Vanessa was so happy about what they had accomplished.

She looked around at her two best friends and was immediately filled with love. She was so grateful for how they helped her get back at someone who had massively wronged her and she knew that they would always have her back and support her in whatever she did.

Now, she just had to hope and pray that Brooke Lynn wouldn’t find out.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brooke Lynn finds out about what Vanessa did to Kameron and she is not happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As if I haven't updated in a month omg. I think we can all agree that life is a little crazy right now lol.
> 
> I hope all you lovely angels are doing good! Only 3 more chapters of this to come, kinda don't want it to end and kinda wanna get it over with as fast as possible haha I have another Branjie multi chapter idea and I really want to get working on it but I can only focus on one thing at a time lol. 
> 
> Hope you darlings enjoy this chapter, love you all xoxo

Saturday was Brooke’s favourite day of the week. 

She got to wake up whenever she wanted, she didn’t find herself rushing to make it to school on time and she could fill her day with all of the things that made her happy. 

She woke up in a good mood since there was no alarm clock blaring at her in the early hours of the morning and she felt at ease. She knew that today was going to be a good day for three reasons; she was able to spend the rest of the morning and afternoon completely relaxing and doing absolutely nothing, there was a big Halloween party happening that night so she would be able to dance and drink and have fun with her friends and, the biggest reason; she got to see Vanessa. 

Brooke put her furry slippers on and slowly walked down the stairs of her penthouse apartment and found herself immediately walking over to the coffee machine. Her body was on autopilot as she prepared her first coffee of the day and made a quick breakfast of fruit, yoghurt and granola. 

As she walked to the living room with her breakfast, she turned on the TV and sat down on the soft leather couch and wondered exactly what she was going to do today. It was already 12pm (she had definitely slept in for longer than she intended to) and she had to be at Vanessa’s at 3pm to have lunch with the girls and start getting ready for the party. Vanessa wanted Brooke to help her curl her hair and Brooke wanted Akeria’s help with her eye makeup so they all figured it would just be easier to get ready and travel to the party together. 

She decided to have Gilmore Girls on in the background (this was probably her fifth time re-watching it) while she scrolled through her phone. After spending a couple of minutes on Twitter and Facebook, she got bored of looking at other people’s social media feeds and was about to put her phone away until she saw it: a Gossip Girl blast entitled “Vanessa Mateo Gets Her Revenge”. 

She immediately clicked on the link and saw that the post went up last weekend. She couldn’t believe she missed it for so long, usually she clicked on anything that Gossip Girl put up about her friends straight away, especially since the post that she had put up about Brooke and Vanessa.

Brooke was extremely confused while she read the post. There were pictures of Kameron being escorted away by her parents and…security guards? Brooke had to squint her eyes to focus on the three people in the background and her heart sank when she realised that, yes, it was in fact Vanessa, Akeria and Silky in the background with massive grins on their faces while Kameron was being dragged away. 

Brooke scrolled down some more and saw that Gossip Girl had revealed exactly where Kameron’s parents were shipping her off to and Brooke Lynn couldn’t help but feel bad for her old friend. She knew how it felt when your own parents made plans to get rid of you and she couldn’t imagine how angry she would’ve felt if she knew that someone her own age had influenced her parents to make that decision. 

Granted, Kameron did deserve some revenge after what she put Vanessa through. But being shipped off to reform school and probably never being able to earn back her parents trust? Brooke thought that was a step too far. Brooke wanted to call Vanessa about what happened but she knew that now probably wasn’t the best time, it would just end in a massive argument where they were both screaming down the phone at each other down. She thought about it some more and came to the conclusion that Akeria would leave out all the important details and would make it seem like it wasn’t that big a deal so that Brooke wouldn’t be angry at Vanessa. Silky was the only one who would want to tell Brooke everything purely because she loved to talk shit about anyone when she had the opportunity to do so. 

Brooke grabbed her phone and called Silky, who picked up immediately. Straight away, Brooke demanded to be told exactly what had went down last weekend and Silky was more than happy to fill Brooke in. 

“Ooh, Miss Brooke Lynn, I wish you could’ve been there to see the look on Kameron’s face. It was hilarious! And Vanessa was throwing shade and we were all laughing, it was a real good time. Shame the girl had to be literally shipped off for it to happen, but she got what she deserved.” Silky said smugly. Brooke could tell that Silky really didn’t care what happened to Kameron and only added in that last part to sound like a good person but Brooke didn’t have enough time or energy to focus on that bit right now. 

She spent the next fifteen minutes drilling Silky with questions. She heard all about how they tried to get Vanessa to plan her revenge but Vanessa had been reluctant at first, how she had finally given in and they had spent hours combing through her social media and how Vanessa had text Kameron off of her phone. 

Brooke couldn’t help but feel a bit used. She thought that Vanessa coming over with coffee for her and her mom was a really sweet and genuine gesture but now finding out that it had only been a distraction in one of her crazy revenge plans? Brooke was hurt. 

“Brooke? You there?” Silky asked and Brooke realised that she must have zoned out towards the end of the story but she knew most of that from the Gossip Girl blast anyways.

“Yeah, Silk…sorry but I gotta go. See you later.” She promptly hung up and threw her phone to the other side of the couch, wondering what to do next. 

\--- 

On the drive over to Vanessa’s apartment, Brooke’s anger grew and grew. She had left her house with good intentions: she was going to go over there and have a civil and mature conversation with Vanessa about what she did and how wrong it was. But the closer the cab got to Vanessa’s street, the more upset Brooke felt. She knew that this probably wouldn’t end well and that they had a party to go to later and would have to at least pretend that they were getting along so that Gossip Girl didn’t write yet another story about them, but right now she didn’t care about any of that. Right now, all she wanted to do was scream. 

As soon as the doorman let her in, she walked with a speed she didn’t know she had and found Dorota dusting the dining room table. 

“Where is she?” Brooke asked angrily which startled Dorota. She pointed at the staircase with her duster and Brooke ran up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. She swung the door to Vanessa’s bedroom open and found the brunette laying on her bed in her pyjamas, painting her nails. 

“Brookie! Hi!” Vanessa said while jumping up excitedly and running over to give Brooke a hug. Before she could reach her, Brooke’s pushed her back to stop her from getting any closer and Vanessa realised she wasn’t okay. She looked extremely pissed off, anyone with eyes could see that. But there was something else that only Vanessa could recognise because of how well they knew each other. Her green eyes were full of emotion and Vanessa frowned when she realised: Brooke was sad. Not just sad, extremely upset. “B…what’s wrong?” 

“What’s wrong? Hmm, I dunno. Maybe the fact that you schemed and planned a freaking revenge attack on Kameron and got her shipped away to a reform school and didn’t tell me about it?” Brooke yelled as she talked and Vanessa was a bit taken aback. Sure, she knew Brooke was gonna be pissed off when she found out what Vanessa had done but she didn’t think she would care this much. Vanessa had to take a moment to recover and plan her next move because she really didn’t know how to reply to Brooke. 

“Brooke…are you really that mad about it?” Vanessa asked quietly, wishing that Brooke was just pranking her and she didn’t actually care as much as it looked like she did. 

“Are you seriously asking me if I’m mad that you got a girl shipped off to reform school, lied to me about it, told our other friends not to tell me about it, came over to my house to distract me while you stole my phone so you could pull a stupid scheme? Of course I’m mad, Vanessa! How could I not be?” Brooke’s voice was only getting louder and louder as she spoke and Vanessa knew she had fucked up big time.

“I’m sorry…look, B, I know you hate it when I do stuff like this but I can’t just let her get away with doing what she did to me. That’s not how I am. If she can try and ruin my life then why can’t I try and ruin hers?” Vanessa knew she sounded like a child who was getting scolded by her mother but she couldn’t stop herself from saying what she felt. 

“Because your life wasn’t ruined, Vanessa, everything ended up fine.” 

“No it didn’t! I was upset for so long after what happened and you know that!” Vanessa argued back, her anger levels now rising to match Brooke’s.

“You ended up with family and friends who supported you and no one dared to say a bad thing to you about it. She’s now being shipped off and probably hated by her parents because of this. You always act before you think, it’s like you think there aren’t any consequences to your actions!” Vanessa had to take a step back and try control her emotions after hearing what Brooke said. She didn’t know what she was feeling more; sadness or anger. Was Brooke Lynn really defending Kameron? After everything they had been through? “I just can’t believe you used me like that, Vanessa. I’m used to you tricking other people like that but not me.”

“I’m sorry, B…” Vanessa was willing to forget about Brooke Lynn defending Kameron considering how sad she looked at that moment. She couldn’t focus on being angry when Brooke looked like she was about to cry.

“That’s the thing, though. You’re not sorry. If you were sorry, you’d apologise to Kameron too. Her life is probably ruined now after this. Not to mention the fact that her family life is probably broken now too. You’re really not getting how bad this is, are you?” It was as if Brooke’s entire personality had changed. Two seconds ago she was holding back tears and now she was screaming at the top of her lungs. She knew deep down that she was more upset at how Vanessa had used her as a pawn in her scheme but she was playing it off as anger. 

Vanessa’s personality had changed very quickly too. Just a moment ago, she had been willing to get on her knees and beg for Brooke’s forgiveness. She would’ve done anything to make her feel better. But defending Kameron twice? She couldn’t accept that. She was instantly filled with jealousy and although she absolutely hated it and even the thought of acknowledging that jealousy made her feel like shit, she knew she couldn’t ignore it. 

“Why are you defending her so much?” Vanessa asked quietly. Brooke looked up and could see by Vanessa’s facial expression that she was pissed. 

“What do you mean?” Brooke asked, not wanting to speak before she understood what Vanessa meant. 

“I can understand you being mad that I lied to you. That I took your phone and used it behind your back as part of a scheme. I completely get that. But why are you defending her? Why do you keep emphasising how bad it is for her?” Brooke could see where Vanessa was coming from but she knew she was being irrational. This was supposed to be about Brooke being mad. Vanessa didn’t get to be mad too. That wasn’t fair. “Did you go yell at her after what she did to me? I’m pretty sure you didn’t. So why the hell are you so angry about what I did to her? Was she your little side chick or something? Are you mad I got your side bitch locked away?” Vanessa was fuming at this point and Brooke knew that this was going to end in a disastrous way.

“You cannot be serious right now Vanessa.” Brooke said sternly. “You seriously cannot be accusing me of sleeping with Kameron after I told you about what happened between me and her in the past.”

“Then why are you so pressed about it?” Vanessa asked with her eyebrows raised and a hand on her hip.

“Because it’s wrong, V! It’s such a shitty thing to do. I can understand Kameron doing shitty things but not you. You’re supposed to be my Vanessa. The one with a heart of gold. This isn’t you.” 

“But you’re defending her! You’re on her side!” Vanessa yelled, angry tears forming in her eyes as she tried her best not to let them spill.

“No I’m not, V, there aren’t any sides here! I just want you to take some fucking responsibility for what you’ve done!” 

“I’m fucking sorry, Brooke! I’m so sorry that I hurt you! But you’re literally picking her over me and I can’t accept that.” Vanessa’s tears slowly rolled down her cheeks and Brooke wanted nothing more than to wipe them away and kiss her better but she held herself back. 

“I’m not picking anyone, Vanessa, seriously.” Brooke rolled her eyes at how Vanessa was acting whilst Vanessa’s heart was breaking.

“You seriously wouldn’t pick my side over hers?” Vanessa whispered softly, looking Brooke directly in her eyes.

“I swear to God, Vanessa, for the last time: I’M NOT PICKING ANY SIDES!” Brooke couldn’t contain herself anymore. She felt like a volcano that had been due to erupt for a long time now. 

“You’re supposed to pick me. You’re supposed to support me if someone does something bad to me, not defend the other person.” Vanessa was full on sobbing at this point, she couldn’t contain it.

“I can’t support you doing things like that. I just can’t.” 

“That’s fine, but why do you have to defend her like that…it’s like you don’t even care how I felt, you just wanna make me feel bad for getting revenge on someone.” 

“I do wanna make you feel bad, Vanessa, what you did was awful.” Brooke knew that she was being harsh. She knew that Vanessa was in her feelings right now and that she wouldn’t be okay with the things that Brooke was saying but she had to get them out. She couldn’t control it. 

“Can you leave please? I don’t wanna talk about this anymore.” Vanessa mumbled as she wiped her eyes. She was so thankful that she skipped her makeup routine that morning otherwise she would’ve had mascara smeared all down her face.

“No, Vanessa, you need to grow up and deal with the consequences of what you’ve done.” 

“Brooke, I’m so sorry about what I did to you. I feel so guilty about lying to you like that. But I won’t apologise for what I did to her. I just can’t.” 

“I don’t think I can see you the same way as I used to then, V…” Brooke replied and Vanessa was coming to terms that whatever she had with Brooke was probably over by now. 

“I knew this was too good to be true…” Vanessa whispered.

“What are you talking about?” Brooke asked out of frustration.

“You and me…we could never be together. It was too good to be true.” Brooke was shocked at Vanessa’s statement. She kind of just assumed they would work through this like they worked through everything else, but it didn’t seem like Vanessa had come to that same conclusion.

“V, stop…don’t say that.”

“No, it’s true. Because I can’t be with someone who defends someone who has wronged me and not only that, tries to act like they’re on some fucking moral high ground when I do something wrong. Newsflash, Brooke, everybody makes mistake. Nobody’s perfect. Are you really gonna act like you haven’t done and said some stupid shit in your life? Because I could probably list twenty things you’ve done if you want me to. But I’m not about to take this kinda scrutiny from you. It’s not okay. I’m not having you fucking roast me this hard every time I fuck up.” 

“Well I’m not gonna let you get away with being a manipulative bitch and act like what you do doesn’t affect people.” Vanessa’s face immediately hardened and that was when Brooke knew that they had both taken it too far. To the point of no return. Vanessa took a deep breath in, told her to get the fuck out of her house, and stormed off into her bathroom and locked the door. 

Brooke stood there stunned for a minute not knowing what she should do. But as soon as she thought about the things Vanessa had said again, anger was the only thing she could focus on and she stormed out of her bedroom and down the stairs. It was only when she got to the living room that she realised leaving would probably be the worst mistake of her entire life. She quietly walked back up the stairs and opened the door to Vanessa’s room as quietly as she could and what she heard broke her heart. Vanessa was openly sobbing as if someone had died. Brooke felt the anger leave her body all at once, as if it was never there. She walked over to the bathroom and sat on the floor, leaning against the locked door with Vanessa on the other side of it. 

“V?” Brooke called out, hoping that Vanessa responded.

“Go away.” Vanessa sounded like she had a cold, her nose was all sniffly and her voice was hoarse from crying. 

“Nessa, please…open the door.” Brooke begged, wanting nothing more than to hold the smaller girl in her arms. Vanessa didn’t reply so Brooke came to terms with the fact that she was going to be doing most of the talking for the moment.

“Listen, V…I’m so sorry. I can’t even begin to put it into words how sorry I am, I completely overreacted and I shouldn’t have done. I’m so so so sorry Vanessa.” Brooke had a hard time keeping her tears in but she knew that there had to be at least one of them not crying for this conversation to go successfully. All of a sudden, the bathroom door opened and Brooke was met with a puffy eyed Vanessa. She stood up and followed Vanessa over to her bed where they sat down. Vanessa immediately wrapped herself in her pink blanket, gently wiping her eyes with the corner of it. 

“You didn’t overreact, B. What I did was dumb and I know that.” Vanessa admitted and Brooke knew that they were on a good path to recovery here, especially if Vanessa was admitting that she was wrong so quickly into the conversation. 

“That doesn’t mean I should treat you like I did. I think I was just hurt that you lied to me and instead of dealing with that, I focused on the anger part because it’s easier to deal with.” Brooke smiled weakly and put her hand on Vanessa’s knee, stroking it gently. “I’m so sorry I let it go that far. I think I need to work on controlling my anger a bit.” Vanessa laughed softly at what Brooke had said.

“I’m sorry too, Brooke. I know what I did was wrong. I promise to stop meddling in people’s lives from now on…especially yours. I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you what I was doing and that I lied to you. It won’t ever happen again I promise.” Vanessa put her hand on top of Brooke’s hand on her knee and squeezed it gently. “Am I forgiven?” Brooke nodded and climbed up to be beside her on the bed.

“Am I?” Brooke asked as she wrapped her arms around Vanessa from behind and Vanessa nodded slowly, turning her head around slightly so she could see Brooke’s face. Brooke gently grabbed Vanessa’s chin and moved her face up before connecting their lips together and both girls shared a sigh of relief that they were on good terms again. Even though the fight was short, Vanessa was sure it was the worst she had felt in a long time, even worse than when Kameron had outed her. 

The two of them knew that they still had a lot of issues to overcome but right now, all they wanted to do was focus on kissing each other…and they did. For about an hour. The only reason they stopped was because Silky and Akeria arrived to get ready for Halloween, otherwise they probably would’ve been there all night.

The girls spent their time doing their makeup and hair and finalising their costumes, listening to music and talking and overall, having a great time. Brooke had missed nights like this when she was in boarding school and spending time with all of her friends made her so grateful to be back. She couldn’t wait for the night ahead.

\--- 

The girls arrived to the club that was hosting their school’s annual Halloween party in the black limo that Brooke had ordered and they were bursting with excitement. They had drunk numerous glasses of champagne on the short drive there and they were ready to have an amazing night. 

Brooke had decided to dress up as Marilyn Monroe, her hair curled short to recreate Marilyn’s iconic waves. Vanessa had been speechless when she saw Brooke in the short dress but she had to force herself to refrain from doing anything for the sake of Akeria and Silky. Akeria had dressed up as a cheerleader simply because she was mad that their school didn’t have a cheer team and she thought it was a shame that everybody hadn’t seen her in a cheer outfit. Silky was dressed up as a Roman Goddess (Vanessa had been extremely confused as to how she was going to pull that off but she decided not to question it) and the costume consisted of a white bedsheet that she had wrapped around her body and strategically pinned in place. She was hoping that by the end of the night, the sheet would be gone and she’d be in someone’s bed and had told everyone proudly that the costume was worn for “easy access” only. Vanessa had decided to dress up as a salsa dancer and got her mom to design a super short red sparkly dress for her. It fit her like a glove and she had her hair down curled to perfection (with Brooke’s help) and she felt amazing. Brooke couldn’t stop staring at her ass and her legs because they looked so phenomenal in that outfit. 

Brooke and Vanessa walked into the party hand in hand and absolutely everybody had their eyes on them. It was like royalty had just walked in. People parted to make way for them all whilst staring at them intensely. 

Brooke gently squeezed Vanessa’s hand in reassurance as the group of four found the booth reserved for them and quickly ordered a round of drinks for their table. Brooke worried that Vanessa would start to feel anxious or upset with everybody’s eyes on the two of them but if she was, she wasn’t showing it. Akeria locked eyes with Vanessa and Vanessa nodded reassuringly, letting the group know that she was okay. They downed a shot of tequila each and quickly hit the dancefloor.

Usually, Vanessa would be all over her friends while dancing at a party like this. She remembered the party that happened the night before Brooke left for boarding school and how they had danced and grinded up on each other pretty much all night, but things were different now. Now, people knew her secret and they were definitely watching her to see what they would do. 

Brooke could tell Vanessa was overthinking things as they were dancing. She was trying to appear normal but she was definitely focusing her energy on dancing with Akeria instead of with Brooke. 

Vanessa wanted nothing more than to dance with Brooke and be all over her but there was something holding her back from doing it. She felt like a ten-year-old girl who was too afraid to tell her crush that she liked them. It was pathetic. She absolutely hated how she wasn’t feeling like her confident self. On any other day, she would walk through the halls of her high school with the exact same people that were in this club with her right now and not give a crap what they thought about her. She was trying her hardest to bring that confidence back to herself but it just wasn’t working.

She looked over to Brooke who was dancing and joking around with Silky. When Brooke saw Vanessa staring, she gave her a small smile and a discrete wink which made Vanessa smile in return. Brooke was the one who made her feel like she could conquer the world without even saying anything. 

She was instantly brought back to what Brooke had said to her that night she had planned to run away: “You’re a Mateo, remember? People don’t tell you who you are, you tell them.” 

“Fuck it.” Vanessa thought as she walked over to Brooke, grabbed her face and kissed her slowly. She could almost feel people’s eyes piercing into her (and also could hear Silky screaming loudly with pride) but she decided that she didn’t care. At the end of the day, she was the most popular girl in school for a reason and kissing Brooke wasn’t going to change that. When Vanessa pulled away, she could see Brooke was stunned.

“Wow…um, I wasn’t expecting that.” Brooke said, clearly flustered from the unexpected kiss. Vanessa giggled in response and went back to the other two girls and continued dancing with them. She felt so much better now that she didn’t have to restrain herself. She could confidently dance with Brooke and make everyone jealous that she was able to make out with the hottest girl at the party. 

After a while, the DJ announced that he was going to play a song for all the couples and as soon as the slow song started playing, Brooke held out her hand to Vanessa. 

“Ness, may I have this dance?” Brooke asked sarcastically and Vanessa accepted immediately (of course). Vanessa, being an absolute hopeless romantic, was dying on the inside. She felt like she was starring in her own romance movie and she loved how it was going. They spent the next few minutes wrapped in each other’s arms, swaying gently to the music. 

Both of them were so happy that, even though the day had been eventful to say the least, it had still ended so perfectly.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanessa plans the perfect date night but it doesn't go according to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Only two chapters to go until this fic is completed!
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy this one and thank you to the angels who left comments on the last chapter!

2 years ago:

It was the start of summer break and everyone was relieved. Finals season had been a stressful time for Vanessa (not so much for Brooke; she kinda just showed up, wrote some stuff down and went back home) and she was ready to let her hair down and spend the summer having fun with her friends. 

It was times like these where Brooke and Vanessa were eternally grateful for the fact that their mothers were such close friends and that they coordinated their family’s summer plans so they were both staying in the Hamptons at the exact same time. Akeria and Silky were coming to stay with them soon too and they couldn’t wait to spend their days by the pool and their nights at house parties, fancy dinners and clubs.

Akeria and Silky were arriving that afternoon and Brooke and Vanessa had decided to go to a pool party in a mansion nearby and told the other two girls to meet them there. It was their first day in the Hamptons and they were both already feeling overwhelmingly relaxed by being at the pool with a cocktail in their hand. 

This year was the first year that they were allowed to go to parties and because of that, they didn’t really know anyone yet. However, they knew they would soon make lots of friends and they were excited to spend the summer partying with them. Vanessa was particularly enjoying the feeling of not having everyone’s attention on her and Brooke. She felt free. 

The two girls had spent their time sunbathing and drinking Cosmos but Vanessa had started to get bored of that pretty quickly and suggested that they should go in the pool (that way she could get a better look at Brooke’s body in her purple bikini). Brooke agreed immediately and they both took their coverups off and walked down the steps to enter the pool. There were a lot of people swimming and just talking to their friends so once again, Vanessa felt like no one was watching and she loved it. 

Brooke was splashing water at her and they started to have a water fight which ended up with Brooke picking Vanessa up to stop her from throwing more water in her direction. She then threw her into the water and Vanessa immediately started to chase her. Vanessa was a much better swimmer than Brooke so she caught up with her pretty quickly and Brooke found herself backed up into the corner of the pool.

Vanessa threw her legs around Brooke’s waist and Brooke was able to hold Vanessa up with minimal effort since they were mostly underwater. Brooke’s hands were gripped firmly on Vanessa’s thighs (Vanessa wished she would move them just a bit lower so they were on her ass) and Vanessa had her arms wrapped around Brooke’s neck. They were so close to each other that they could feel each other’s breath. They had been making out a lot whenever they were in private but never in public. Brooke would have absolutely no problem kissing her right then and there in front of everyone but she didn’t think Vanessa was ready for people to know about her sexuality just yet. 

“I wanna kiss you so bad right now.” Vanessa whispered into Brooke’s ear, her lips lightly touching Brooke’s neck. Vanessa was breathing heavily and Brooke could tell she was turned on which, in turn, turned Brooke on too. Brooke had to take a deep breath before gently running her hands up and down Vanessa’s thighs. 

“Wanna go inside? We can find a room.” Brooke suggested quietly.

“Yes…please, I wanna go right now.” Vanessa whimpered and Brooke had to hold back a laugh at the effect she had on the brunette. Brooke placed her back down and took her hand to lead Vanessa out of the pool. They quickly dried off and grabbed their bags before Vanessa grabbed Brooke’s hand and dragged her in the direction of the large house behind the pool. 

As soon as they entered the house, they quickly realised that there were people everywhere in there too but Vanessa didn’t care. She kept a firm grip on Brooke’s hand and pulled her up the stairs, glancing into the various bedrooms until she found one she liked the look of. Brooke threw their bags on the floor, closed the door behind them and immediately pushed Vanessa up against it. Their lips met quickly and urgently and Vanessa loved the feeling of being caged in by Brooke. Brooke was flooding all of her senses and Vanessa was feeling extremely overwhelmed with desire.

Brooke broke their lips apart and immediately began to kiss down Vanessa’s neck and collarbone and Vanessa was trying her very best to suppress her moans and not let anyone heat them. Suddenly, Brooke tugged on Vanessa’s waist and pushed her onto the large bed in the centre of the room. Vanessa couldn’t help but let herself fall back onto the soft mattress as her arms quickly began searching for Brooke so she could pull her down on top of her. 

Vanessa quickly realised that the both of them were in their bikinis and that was probably the most exposed she had ever been around Brooke Lynn in that kind of way. Brooke had Vanessa’s hands pinned above her head and was kissing down her chest and stomach and Vanessa was sure that if Brooke didn’t do something soon, she was going to explode. Brooke’s mouth was getting closer and closer to where Vanessa needed it most and she was so excited that this was finally about to happen until—

A phone. One of their phone’s was ringing obnoxiously loud. Brooke stopped in her tracks and raised an eyebrow at Vanessa, trying to see if it was a call that she needed to take. But Vanessa recognised the ringtone as one that Silky had set for herself and was immediately disappointed. 

“I think Silky and Akeria are here.” Vanessa said with a disgruntled tone to her voice.

“Oh.” Brooke replied, also extremely disappointed that they could not continue with what they were about to do. 

\--- 

Now: 

A week had passed since the Halloween party and Vanessa felt like her adrenaline was still buzzing from it. Her confidence was at an all time high and she felt unstoppable now that everyone knew about her being gay and nobody had anything to hold over her. 

Vanessa was having a relaxed Saturday morning to herself because her mom was away on yet another work trip, but Vanessa didn’t mind this time. she had lit her favourite Winter candles; she had her favourite pancakes and coffee delivered from a brunch restaurant near her house and she had an unlimited amount of time to do one of her favourite activities: writing in her diary.

Vanessa had kept a diary since she was ten years old ever since she had gotten one as a gift from her grandmother. Her diary was the one place where she could be completely free and say whatever she wanted without fear of someone finding out (mainly because she kept them locked in a trunk at the end of her bed and she was the only one who knew where the key was located). Whenever she felt stressed or upset, she would just write and write until it felt like her hand was going to fall off. She also wrote about all of the good things happening in her life too and recently, she found herself writing an awful lot about Brooke Lynn Hytes. 

She wrote: _“I’ve been spending practically every minute of my free time with Brooke this past week and I’m so happy that we’re finally together. Technically, we haven’t said that we’re dating but it’s so obvious that we are. We made out in front of everyone at the Halloween party and in just a few hours, we’re going to make it extra official. She’s coming over tonight and I have a super romantic dinner planned. I’ve ordered all of her favourite foods and I just bought a new outfit that will hopefully leave her wanting to undress me as soon as she sees me in it. I can’t believe we still haven’t had sex yet. Every single time I’m around her, all I wanna do is jump on top of her but it just hasn’t been the right time yet. But I am determined: tonight is going to be the night._

\--- 

The dining room of the Mateo’s penthouse was decorated to perfection. The table was set with tealight candles running down the length of the table, some flowers in the centre and there was even some music playing in the background. The only thing that was out of place was a very upset Vanessa sitting at the end of the table staring at the time on her phone. 

Vanessa had told Brooke to be there at eight o’clock and it was now ten minutes past nine and she still hadn’t arrived. To make matters worse, Brooke hadn’t answered her phone any of the twelve times that Vanessa had called her. Twenty more minutes had passed and Vanessa was starting to get worried. What could have happened that would make Brooke not show up? Maybe she forgot? Maybe she took a nap and didn’t set an alarm? Either way, Vanessa knew that Brooke was going to have to make it up to her big time. She was on the verge of just going over to Brooke’s apartment just to see what was happening when she heard the elevator doors open and an extremely drunk Brooke stumbled in. 

“Nessaaaa!” Brooke strolled into the living room (almost tripping over her own feet twice) and wrapped her arms around the shorter girl. 

“Brooke, where the hell were you? Why are you drunk?” Out of all the scenarios that Vanessa had imagined, Brooke showing up absolutely shitfaced was not one of them. 

“Some of my boarding school friends were visiting the city so we went out for cocktails. I had waaaay too many though.” Brooke giggled at herself and Vanessa rolled her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath to stop herself from snapping at the blonde. 

Brooke’s eyes fluttered over to the dining room doors where she could see candles and flowers, and could faintly here piano music playing. The realisation struck her like lightning: this wasn’t just a casual hangout, this was a date…and she was an hour and a half late for it. She started panicking internally and tried to come up with some kind of excuse as to why she didn’t realise but she couldn’t think of anything good enough. Vanessa had gone to all of this effort to spend time with her and she just hadn’t shown up? This was awful. She decided that the only thing she could do was be honest with Vanessa, even if it did start World War 3.

“Shit, V, I…I didn’t realise you were planning all of this…I’m so sorry.” Brooke started mumbling her apologies and without any warning, Vanessa started to cry really hard. Brooke tried to get up to go and comfort her but she couldn’t sit up right and Vanessa couldn’t handle seeing her in that state anymore.

“I want you to leave my apartment and I want you to leave me alone forever. I’m done with you not taking this seriously, Brooke.” Vanessa said in a harsh tone and tried to walk away buy Brooke grabbed her hand with a tight grip and wouldn’t let her go. 

“Don’t leave, Nessa, I’m so sorry…” Brooke was slurring her words so heavily that it was a miracle Vanessa could understand what she was saying. Vanessa tried to get Brooke to let go of her but she couldn’t, the blonde was holding on too strong. 

“I don’t care if you’re sorry, Brooke. I’m sorry that I can’t keep waiting around for you to realise that what we have is special.” Vanessa said softly and she could see Brooke’s eyes slightly filling up with tears but she honestly couldn’t be sure if it was because of what she was saying or because of how drunk Brooke was. 

“Stop, baby…I do realise. Just come cuddle!” Brooke kept trying to grab Vanessa by the waist and pull her down onto the couch but Vanessa was able to stop her.

“These last few months have been some of the best months of my life because of you, B. but I can’t do it anymore. This was the last straw.” Vanessa ran up the stairs to her bedroom leaving Brooke by herself, trying her best to apologise but unable to get her words out properly or even think straight. All Brooke could hear was a door slam in the distance as she sat on Vanessa’s couch trying not to fall asleep. 

She was on the verge of passing out but a gentle hand on her arm woke her up. She hoped deep down that it would be Vanessa but unfortunately for her, it was Dorota. The housekeeper held out a glass of water and tried to get Brooke to take a sip of it but Brooke used all of her strength to push the glass away. She stood up on her shaky legs and tried to leave but could feel Dorota trying to get her to sit back down. 

“Please, Miss Brooke, you will feel better if you sit back down and have some water.” Dorota tried to plead with the younger girl but she was having none of it. Brooke stumbled back into the elevator that she had previously stumbled out of and closed the door behind her, leaving a concerned Dorota behind her. 

\--- 

It had been an hour since Brooke had left Vanessa’s apartment and she had sobered up pretty quickly. She didn’t know if it was because of the cold air of because of Vanessa’s deeply upsetting words but she was suddenly able to think clearly and, unfortunately for Brooke, she remembered everything that Vanessa had said. 

She couldn’t believe all of the effort that Vanessa had gone to so that the two of them could have a perfect night. She couldn’t accept the fact that she had ruined her chances of finally making Vanessa her girlfriend…all because she got too drunk to function.

She had been walking around the Upper East Side for an hour now, which probably wasn’t the best idea for an 18-year-old girl to be doing considering it was almost one o’clock in the morning, but Brooke didn’t want to go home. The idea of being alone with her thoughts terrified her more than she cared to admit. If anything, she wished she could go back to being as drunk as she was when she left Vanessa’s apartment. 

It was a cruel night in early November which meant that Brooke was absolutely freezing and on the verge of shivering. She wasn’t exactly known for dressing for the weather, wearing a short black dress and a thin leather jacket. She didn’t really recognise the area she was in but she figured she should probably go somewhere to warm up for a bit before heading home. 

She found a new bar that she had never been to before and decided to go in there for a little bit. Immediately, she downed three shots of tequila and after fifteen minutes or so, that familiar drunken state was beginning to come back. She ordered two more drinks and drank them far too quickly and just as she was about to order her next one, she almost fell off the bar stool. Luckily, there was a man there to catch her and stop her from landing on the floor.

“Woah, hey…are you alright?” he asked concerned, and Brooke shuddered in disgust when she realised the man who was touching was old enough to be her dad. “What’s a pretty girl like you doing all alone in a bar like this?”

“Fuck off.” Brooke returned her attention to her drink and presumed that the man would’ve gotten the hint that she wasn’t interested. The alcohol was definitely hitting her again, but instead of making her feel happy like it did just a few hours ago, she was now feeling an overwhelming urge to cry. 

“Wow…I just stopped you from falling but whatever. I was just trying to get to know you but I guess I won’t offer to buy you a drink then.” The guy was acting like Brooke rejecting him was the worst thing she could’ve possibly done and usually Brooke would’ve gone on a rant about how he wasn’t entitled to the attention of any female but on this night, she couldn’t think of anything other than Vanessa. Brooke rolled her eyes as the man spoke and when he had the audacity to continue to speak, Brooke knew she couldn’t take it anymore. It was like all of her emotions hit her at once and she just needed to let them all out. 

“You wanna get to know me? FINE. I just ruined the chances of ever having a relationship with the girl I love, the most beautiful girl in the entire world because I got too drunk! I ruined everything! And you don’t understand, I love her more than anything. I’ve loved her for so long. Do you have any idea what it’s like –” Brooke’s drunken ramblings went on for a long time and although the random man tried to escape numerous times, Brooke wouldn’t let him go until she was fully finished. 

She also wasn’t aware of how loud she was being…or that Trixie Mattel, a girl from her school who was known for being one of Gossip Girl’s most reliable informants, was sitting at the other end of the bar with her phone out…and she had filmed her entire rant. Trixie knew when Gossip Girl saw this, it would be posted immediately and she really hoped Brooke sobered up before Vanessa saw it so she could do some damage control. Then she remembered Brooke wasn’t her friend and she didn’t particularly care about what the outcome was and pressed send. 

\--- 

Spotted: Brooke Lynn Hytes drunkenly professing her love for Vanessa. I don’t know what’s more embarrassing; the fact that Brooke was drinking alone or the fact that she had to force a stranger to listen to her problems. You better come get your girl, V. XOXO, Gossip Girl.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brooke realises just how badly she fucked up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg I don't think I can process how this is the second last chapter I'm gonna be so sad when it's over!! (I may or may not be already planning a couple oneshots for this series lol we'll see) 
> 
> I'm hoping to have the last chapter up in exactly one week from today which is very ambitious since I haven't even started writing it yet and I have a ton of college deadlines in the next week but we'll see how that ends up working out...
> 
> I hope all of you angels are doing good and I hope you enjoy this chapter (even though it's super short, I promise the last one will be long af)

Brooke’s eyes fluttered open slowly and she was convinced that she must be on her deathbed. She hadn’t felt that awful in a long time. She hated that being hungover was a feeling that she was well accustomed to but she didn’t have the energy to process that thought in that particular moment. Her head was pounding and the room was far too bright even though the curtains were closed. She was just grateful that she woke up in her own bed considering she had absolutely no recollection of how she got home. 

She turned her head slightly and saw a large glass of water on her nightstand. She thanked her past drunken self for this act of kindness and chugged the water, feeling some relief that the cold liquid brought her. However, her stomach did not react as well as the rest of her body did and she immediately had to jump out of bed and run to the bathroom to empty out the contents of her stomach into the toilet.

After finishing puking her guts out and wishing death upon herself, she walked back into her bedroom feeling like a zombie and preparing to sleep the rest of the day away. She gave a content sigh at the thought of doing absolutely nothing at all and was starting to feel at ease until she saw it.

Someone laying on the other side of her bed. She didn’t know how she had missed it before but she presumed the feeling of wanting to vomit took priority in her mind over scanning her bed for strangers. She couldn’t make out who the person was and she was starting to worry. As soon as she felt a tiny bit of anxiety in her body, her memories seemed to come back all at once. 

Getting drunk with boarding school friends. Disappointing Vanessa. Vanessa telling her to leave her alone forever. The feelings of sadness and guilt were majorly overwhelming her and she wanted to throw up again, but not from the alcohol this time. Who the hell was in her bed? Did she seriously bring someone home to hook up with after everything that had happened? 

She slowly approached the bed and saw that it was a girl who was about the same age as her. Brooke recognised the pyjamas the girl was wearing as her own and when she got closer, she felt the relief flood her body. No one else in New York had crazy bed hair like Nina West did. Brooke hadn’t prayed in years but felt herself silently thanking God that it was her old friend and not some random girl. Brooke looked down and saw she was wearing her oldest but comfiest pair of pyjamas that she had owned since she was probably fifteen years old. There was also the glass of water on her nightstand and a box of painkillers behind them. Brooke should’ve known it was Nina. A random hook up wouldn’t have got her water for the next morning and put her in her favourite pyjamas.

She took two of the tablets and downed them with water before getting back into her bed and wrapping herself up in her blanket. Nina was still fast asleep but there were so many gaps in Brooke’s memory that it was starting to worry her. The last thing she remembered was doing tequila shots at some random bar she didn’t know the name of and Nina wasn’t there. So how the hell did she find her? 

Brooke knew she had to wake Nina up to get some answers. She felt bad about interrupting her sleep, of course, but she couldn’t wait any longer. She was feeling so impatient. She gently shook Nina awake and Nina woke up pretty much straight away. 

“Hey…” Brooke mumbled guiltily and Nina smiled at her. 

“How are you feeling?” Nina asked. 

“I feel like shit…what the hell happened last night?” Brooke asked, dreading the answer. Nina looked at her with eyes full of pity.

“Oh honey, you don’t remember?” Brooke’s heart rate instantly sped up and she held her head in her hands whilst shaking her head.

“No…Nina, the last thing I remember is ordering shots in that bar at like 2am and you weren’t there. What the fuck happened, what did I do?” It had been a while since Brooke had blacked out as bad as she had the previous night. She knew that if her mother found out how bad she had been, she would be in serious trouble but she trusted Nina to be careful enough that her mother wouldn’t have noticed them coming home in the early hours of the morning.

Nina seemed like she was holding something back, like she wanted to spare Brooke’s feelings and Brooke felt like she was about to pass out. She wasn’t good at managing her anxiety at the best of times but right now, she was on the verge of a panic attack.

“Nina…please just tell me.” Brooke whispered the last part, unable to even speak properly. Nina took a deep breath before telling Brooke the whole story. She told Brooke all about how she had been at home and then saw a video of Brooke on Gossip Girl and knew she had to go get her and bring her home immediately before anything else happened. Brooke was mortified. Everyone had most likely seen her act like an absolute drunk mess by now and there was nothing she could do about it. But most of all, she felt disappointed. She hadn’t even got to tell Vanessa she loved her in person; Gossip Girl had beat her to it. 

After watching the video on her own phone, Brooke wanted to curl up into a ball and die. She didn’t know how she would ever recover from the humiliation of this. If Vanessa didn’t want to be with her because she showed up drunk, she definitely wouldn’t want to be with her now that she had ruined her reputation like this. She had thought Nina’s story was over, but unfortunately for Brooke, there were more embarrassing details that Nina had forgot to tell.

“When I walked into the bar, I found you in the corner booth with a random Asian couple who didn’t speak any English. You were telling them about how soft Vanessa’s hair was, which would’ve been a pretty funny thing to find you telling strangers about if the whole video thing hadn’t happened.” Nina giggled while remembering that fact but Brooke was not ready to laugh about the whole situation yet. She didn’t know if she ever would be. 

Brooke’s least favourite part of this whole situation was that when she felt upset about Vanessa not talking to her, the only person she wanted to go to for comfort was Vanessa. Vanessa was one of the only people who were constant in Brooke’s life, the only person who had always been there for her no matter what. When her parents divorced, Vanessa was there for her. When her grandfather (who was basically like a father to her) died, Vanessa was there to dry her tears. Even when Vanessa’s parents had divorced and she had felt extremely depressed and Brooke wasn’t able to be there for her, Vanessa had forgiven her. Brooke knew that Vanessa had the biggest heart out of everyone she knew and she wasn’t able to just let her go. 

Brooke had fucked up many times in her life. You only had to ask her mother and she would be able to tell you many stories of all of the mistakes that Brooke has made in her eighteen years of living. But this had to be the worst thing she had ever done. She tried calling Vanessa’s phone a few times but found that her calls were getting declined almost immediately. 

She decided to send her a small text so that Vanessa could read even a tiny bit of how she was feeling and what she was thinking in that moment…but she had absolutely no idea what to say to her. She typed and deleted and typed again for a good five minutes while Nina sat beside her awkwardly. Brooke was in her own world too much to notice.

She ended up sending a text that read: _V, please talk to me. I can’t lose you. I just can’t._

“Had you ever told Vanessa before?” Nina asked quietly. Brooke frowned in confusion.

“Told her what?” 

“That you love her.” Nina stated it so simply yet it made Brooke’s heart flutter from nervousness and her stomach ache with dread. 

“No…I hadn’t got a chance to do it yet.” Brooke said with such sadness that it made Nina worry for the younger girl. 

“Can I give you some advice?” Nina asked while stroking Brooke’s shoulder and Brooke just nodded solemnly, not giving Nina a response in words. “Obviously I don’t know Vanessa as well as you do…but I think that if you don’t go and tell her you love her soon, she’s going to be very upset with you.” Brooke knew that what Nina was saying made sense. In a perfect world she could just say it to Vanessa as soon as possible and all would be forgiven. But Nina didn’t see how angry Vanessa was. 

“Nina…you weren’t there last night. Vanessa wants nothing to do with me anymore. I think she’d be happy if she never saw me again.” Brooke felt tears spring into her eyes when she admitted that to Nina. It was almost as if she was admitting it to herself for the first time, like it had just sunk in for her. Nina held her while she cried and let her get all of the tears out that she needed to and for that, Brooke would be eternally grateful. She hated being emotional in front of anyone but Vanessa so this was a big step up for Brooke. However, she knew that if she could swap Nina’s arms with Vanessa’s, she would do it in a heartbeat. 

“I’m sure it feels like that right now, Brooke, but come on…when have you and Vanessa ever stayed mad at each other for a long period of time?” Nina asked and deep down, Brooke knew she was right. Her and Vanessa were always a part of each other’s lives no matter what. But this time felt different. It felt like Vanessa was ready to let her go whereas Brooke couldn’t even bring herself to imagine what her life would be like without Vanessa in it. “You just need to do something to get her back. To make her forgive you. She pretends that she has no emotions but we all know deep down she’s a massive romantic. Make a plan to win her back and there’s no way she can say no to you.” It was like Nina’s words made a lightbulb go off inside Brooke’s brain. Vanessa loved big gestures. Surely there was something she could do to make Vanessa forgive her…there had to be something. Brooke seemed so deep in thought that Nina thought it would be better to leave her alone to focus on whatever she seemed to be planning in her mind. 

She told Brooke she had an essay due tomorrow that she had to finish and Brooke thanked her before she left. Brooke knew she had to come up with something amazing here. It was Thanksgiving tomorrow and usually Vanessa’s family came to have dinner that Brooke’s mom organised and she knew that they were definitely coming this year. Vanessa loved Thanksgiving and she was sure that she would still come even if she wasn’t speaking to Brooke. Akeria and Silky would still be there with their families Brooke figured Vanessa would go just to see them. 

Brooke tried to get into the mindset that Vanessa had when she was planning and organising events. She had to nail absolutely every detail and make everything perfect, up to Vanessa’s standards. She immediately made a list of all of Vanessa’s favourite things that she could get her to make her happy. The icing on top of the cake was going to be that Brooke was going to get her alone, tell her she loved her and ask her to be her girlfriend (providing that Vanessa didn’t storm out and would actually speak to her, of course). 

Usually, something as big as this would make Brooke freak out. She usually hated being out of control of a situation and the thought of admitting that she loved someone would normally be enough to send her into a panic attack. 

But this time felt different. She was excited to tell Vanessa how she really felt and of course she was nervous that Vanessa would react badly, but she also couldn’t help being positive and thinking about how great it would be if Vanessa said it back. 

Brooke spent the rest of the day thinking about exactly what she wanted to say. She wanted it to be perfect. She went to bed early that night thinking about how tomorrow was going to be one of the best days of her life.

\--- 

It was late at night in the Mateo household and Vanessa was sitting on her bed watching Dorota pack her suitcases. It seemed as though Dorota was working a lot slower than usual and Vanessa couldn’t stand it. She wanted all of her belongings packed up as quickly as possible so she could mentally prepare herself for leaving New York. 

Her mom had been surprised that she wanted to go live with her dad in France, especially because of how she had said she was leaving last time and all it took was Brooke asking her to stay for her to decide to not go at all. Deep down, Mrs Mateo knew that if Brooke could somehow stop her from going, Vanessa would stay. But that was looking to be a little bit difficult considering Vanessa hadn’t told anyone she was going apart from her mom and Dorota. 

Vanessa felt the tears come into her eyes for the millionth time that day but she quickly blinked them away. Anytime she thought of Brooke, she just wanted to call her and forgive her but she couldn’t do it anymore. She had to be strong and stick by her decisions…but she also knew she couldn’t do that by being in the same city as Brooke. There was too much temptation. She knew that moving to France would be the best decision for her, and it would be nice to live with her dad again. 

She went to bed that night with an overwhelming feeling of sadness. She barely slept and when she did sleep, she dreamt of Brooke. She wondered how Brooke would react when she found out Vanessa was gone. She tried to pretend like she didn’t care but realistically she knew how much it was going to hurt Brooke and she felt bad about that. She also felt sad that she wasn’t going to get to have a proper Thanksgiving meal, only whatever crappy meal she had on the plane. But that was a sacrifice she had to make. She had to get out of New York and away from Brooke as soon as possible and she stood by that.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will Brooke convince Vanessa to stay and finally tell her she loves her?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhh I can't believe it's over!!! Major props to anyone who actually read the entire thing lmao I'm super impressed you could continue on reading with my terrible grammar mistakes! On a more serious note, thank you so much to every single person who left comments on this, especially the people who commented on every chapter; there's a very special place in my heart for you and I'm so grateful to you guys!
> 
> Keep an eye out for a new Branjie Christmas fic coming soon!!

Brooke woke up on Thanksgiving morning with so much energy that you would think she had already consumed four coffees. Truth was, she had never been this excited to do anything in her entire life. The thought of Vanessa finally knowing how she felt about her, how much she loved and cared about her…it made Brooke so happy. 

She decided that she would take Vanessa into a private room and try to get her to have a conversation with her. She knew that getting her alone would be difficult, especially due to the fact that Vanessa was currently ignoring her, but she figured she could win her over eventually. In the room would be all of Vanessa’s favourite things that Brooke had bought and ordered to be delivered to her apartment. Things like Vanessa’s favourite macaroons, earrings from her favourite jewellery store, a signed copy of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, aka, her all-time favourite movie. Just a ton of stuff that Brooke could guarantee Vanessa would love.

Brooke spent her evening last night preparing the second part of the plan which involved writing down all of her favourite things about Vanessa onto little pieces of paper and sticking them onto the gifts that she had bought for her. Once Vanessa had seen all of the gifts and the notes, Brooke would tell her everything about how she felt. About how much she loved her, how she couldn’t fathom losing her, how she wanted to be with her…and if everything went according to plan, Brooke would finally have Vanessa as her girlfriend by the end of the day. 

Brooke started doing her skincare routine and took a shower, trying her best to calm her nerves as she got ready. She had a long day ahead of her and she knew that she couldn’t mess it up. 

\--- 

At around one o’clock, Brooke could hear the guests start to arrive to their annual Thanksgiving dinner so she fixed her hair one last time and decided to go downstairs and say hi to everyone. If she didn’t, her mother would be super pissed so it was best to just get it over with. 

She spotted Yvie and Scarlet sitting on one of the couches and decided to go and join them since they were the only people who were even close to being the same age as her. They were sitting really close together and Scarlet seemed to move away from Yvie slightly as soon as Brooke sat down but she didn’t comment on it. They start talking about random stuff like school and Christmas vacation plans, nothing with any real meaning to it. But then Scarlet just had to be her usual nosy self and start asking questions. 

“So what ended up happening with Vanessa after the whole drunken video fiasco? Did you guys talk it out or what?” Scarlet asked inquisitively and Brooke swore she had never seen Scarlet be so interested in anything for the entire time she had known her. Brooke began to speak but Yvie interrupted her.

“Scarlet, you know that’s none of your damn business. Brooke, don’t tell her anything unless you actually want to.” Brooke Lynn was relieved for Yvie being there, she knew that if it were just her and Scarlet that she would probably spill all her secrets and that would not end well for her. 

“Thanks Yvie,” Brooke awkwardly laughed when she could see Scarlet side-eyeing her friend. “But I’m gonna fix it. I’m gonna fix it today.” Brooke said confidently, trying to fake the confidence so that they would believe it because at that point in time, even she wasn’t believing herself. 

At that moment, Brooke could hear her two other best friends enter the apartment and immediately got up to go and say hi to them. Saying “excuse me” to Scarlet and Yvie, she stood up from the couch in her living room and made her way over to the entrance of her home where Akeria and Silky were standing. Brooke could immediately tell that Akeria looked kind of pissed off. 

“Don’t be talking to Scarlet about your personal life, Brooke! How many times do I have to tell you people this? You tell that bitch one thing and two seconds later it’s up on Gossip Girl!” Akeria said in a hushed tone so that Scarlet couldn’t hear her, but Brooke couldn’t help but feel as though they were being watched by her.

Silky waved her hand at Akeria’s rant and took out her phone, checking it for any notifications. “Has anyone heard from Vanessa? She hasn’t replied to like, any of my texts since yesterday afternoon.” Brooke looked at Silky and rolled her eyes.

“Why are you asking me? I obviously haven’t heard from her!” Brooke stated which made Akeria narrow her eyebrows as if she were in deep thought.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t heard from her since yesterday either. She usually texts me when she wakes up but she didn’t today.” Akeria got her phone out, showing the text she sent to Vanessa yesterday that hadn’t been opened to prove her point. Silky suggested calling her to see what was going on but as predicted, there was no answer. 

“Maybe she’s not coming today…” Brooke said sadly and Akeria stroked her back in reassurance. Brooke never really considered that Vanessa wouldn’t show up to the dinner. Thanksgiving was one of Vanessa’s favourite holidays, she kind of just figured that she would show up for Akeria and Silky, even if she was super pissed at Brooke. 

Suddenly, Mrs Mateo walked into the apartment. Brooke felt relieved when she saw Vanessa’s mother but then felt nothing but dread when Vanessa didn’t get out of the elevator after her. The three girls rushed over to Mrs Mateo immediately.

“Mrs M, where is Vanessa? Is she okay?” Akeria asked, sounding very worried.

“She hasn’t replied to any of our texts and she won’t answer our calls and—” Silky was interrupted by Mrs Mateo, whose face was full of sadness. 

“Girls, I’m sorry I have to be the one to tell you this but…Vanessa has decided, yet again, that she wants to leave New York and go stay with her father for a bit. She hasn’t left yet; her flight isn’t until this evening but she just didn’t have it in her to come and say goodbye. It would’ve been too difficult for her,” Upon hearing this, all three of the girls froze in their place. They were completely shocked, especially Brooke. Her plans had been completely ruined and she didn’t know how to fix this situation that they were in. She had absolutely no idea what to do. “I’m going to say hello to your mother Brooke Lynn, if you want to come and talk to me, you are more than welcome to.” Mrs Mateo handed her coat to a member of staff and walked over in the direction of Brooke’s mother. 

“Guys, what the fuck am I going to do now?” Brooke asked, trying to keep her tears in.

“Come on, B, you know what you gotta do!” Silky said encouragingly while a few tears rolled down Brooke’s face. Akeria wiped her tears away with her thumb and strongly squeezed Brooke’s hands with her own.

“You were the one who stopped her from leaving last time, you can do it again.” Brooke was shocked by how much faith Akeria seemed to have in her.

“I can’t Akeria, it’s different this time. She fucking hates me right now and—” 

“Brooke Lynn Hytes, I swear to God, if the next words that come out of your mouth aren’t “Yes Akeria, I am going to go and grab all of the gifts I got for Vanessa and go over there and tell her I love her and stop her from leaving”, then I am going to kill you. You love her and she loves you. You are the only one who can stop her from going.” Akeria held eye contact with Brooke the entire time she was talking and Brooke knew that she at least had to give it a shot.

“You really think it’ll work?” Brooke asked quietly.

“Fuck yeah, it’ll work! And if you think it isn’t working, throw in a few tears. Vanessa hates seeing you cry…but you didn’t hear that from me.” Silky winked as she let Vanessa’s secret slip and gave Brooke a reassuring hug. Brooke nodded in agreement and took a few deep breaths to centre herself and calm herself down. She could do this. She had to do this…she literally didn’t have any other choice. 

She grabbed all of the gifts and shoved them into a bag and left, hearing her mother shouting at her to come back in the distance. 

\--- 

Brooke had never felt as nervous as she did when she was sitting in a taxi on her way to Vanessa’s apartment. She felt so much pressure, not just to win Vanessa back and make her believe that she loved her, but also from Akeria and Silky. They didn’t want to lose their best friend either. Brooke’s phone lit up with a notification and of course, it just had to be a Gossip Girl blast. She rolled her eyes and mentally prepared herself for whatever bullshit rumour she was about to read. 

_Hey Upper East Siders,  
My sources tell me that Vanessa Mateo is threatening to leave New York (once again) and it’s all Brooke’s fault. My sources also tell me that Brooke is already on her way to try and save their relationship. Maybe it’s a little too late for that, Brooke Lynn. How could she possibly still want you after seeing what a trainwreck you are?  
XOXO, Gossip Girl _

Brooke has never felt so angry at a blast before. Sure, she was pissed when Gossip Girl outed Vanessa, but this seemed different. This seemed personal and so full of hatred. She also came to the conclusion that it must have been Scarlet who sent the tip in since she was staring at them and watching everything that happened in Brooke’s apartment. But Brooke needed to stop thinking about that. She had bigger and better things to focus on. Like the fact that the car was already outside Vanessa’s apartment complex and she had to go upstairs. 

She ran up to the elevator and as soon as the doors opened into Vanessa’s apartment, Brooke was greeted by Dorota. The housekeeper was cleaning up after what appeared to be Vanessa’s lunch and she didn’t seem surprised to see Brooke arrive.

“Miss Brooke, I don’t know if it is the best idea for you to be here right now…” Dorota said with pity in her voice and just as Brooke was about to speak, she heard Vanessa’s voice.

“Dorota who the hell are you talking to?,” Vanessa walked from her bedroom to the top of her stairs and as soon as she saw Brooke, her entire facial expression changed. She was giving Brooke her signature bitch face and Brooke couldn’t take it. “Really, Brooke? Can you just go away and leave me alone?” 

“I can’t…,” Brooke said quietly and it was as if she forgot how to speak. She couldn’t think of what to say to Vanessa, she was just so happy to see her in person. Even if Vanessa was standing with her hand on her hip and her eyebrow raised, waiting for her to leave. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Can I please just have a minute of your time? Please?”

Vanessa rolled her eyes and gave Dorota a look which Dorota understood to be Vanessa telling her to leave the room immediately. As soon as Dorota was gone and it was just the two of them, Brooke felt all of the nerves come flooding in at once. All of the things she had planned to say had just gone out of her mind and she couldn’t think of anything that sounded good enough. 

“Vanessa…please don’t go.” Brooke said quietly which earned an eye roll in response from Vanessa. Her eyes went to the bags that Brooke was carrying, she was able to see some boxes wrapped in rose gold wrapping paper with ribbons attached to them.

“If you thought you could come here and buy my forgiveness, then you—” Brooke decided that it was now or never and she had to interrupt Vanessa.

“I love you.” 

Brooke had never felt more relieved after saying anything in her entire life. She felt a massive weight lifted off of her shoulders. Nothing felt more freeing than being able to tell Vanessa that she loved her. The only problem was, Vanessa hadn’t said it back. She was just standing at the top of the stairs looking terrified.

“What?” Vanessa whispered, her breathing heavy and her eyes filling with tears slightly. Brooke knew that this moment would either make or break their future relationship and that she had to prove to Vanessa just how much she loved her.

“I love you, Vanessa,” Brooke stated this with much more confidence than the first time. She walked up the stairs to join Vanessa at the top. “I love you. I’ve loved you for so long and I hate that it took me so long to recognise it. You’re the most loving, caring, kind, thoughtful and beautiful girl in the entire world and the thought of you not being here with me kills me inside. I love you so much, Ness.” Vanessa’s tears were pouring down her face at this point.

“You do?”

“Yeah, I do.” Vanessa wrapped her arms around Brooke’s neck and kissed her with so much urgency that Brooke never wanted to come up for air again. She finally got to kiss the woman she loved and know that Vanessa knows just how much Brooke loves her. 

Vanessa broke back from the kiss for a moment; “I love you too, Brooke.” Brooke smiled and her eyes looked down to the foyer for just a second and she was suddenly reminded of the gifts that she had brought for Vanessa. Brooke grabbed her hand and brought her downstairs to the living room. As they sat down on the couch, she showed her everything that she had got for her, including the little personal notes that Brooke had written about Vanessa (which were definitely Vanessa’s favourite part of the entire gift). Vanessa put the notes in a drawer on her coffee table, keeping them in a safe place so she could savour them forever. 

“Now there’s just one thing left to do.” Brooke said as she took Vanessa’s hands in hers and kissed her gently on the lips. 

“What’s that?” Vanessa asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement. 

“Vanessa Mateo, would you please do me the honour of being my girlfriend?” Vanessa giggled at Brooke’s formality but of course, she said yes as soon as the words left Brooke’s mouth. Brooke kissed Vanessa, her girlfriend, harder and more passionately than they had ever kissed before. There was so much love involved in this kiss now. Everything was different. They were finally in a relationship, something both of the girls had dreamed about for years now. 

They continue kissing for a long time, so obsessed with each other and completely oblivious to what was going on around them. Dorota walked back in and saw them on the couch but they were too busy to even notice her presence. Dorota was happy for them, she always knew they were destined to be together. She brought Vanessa’s suitcases back up to her room and started to unpack everything with a smile on her face.

\--- 

9 months later:

The hot Italian sun shone down on the bodies of the two young New York socialites who were spending their time sunbathing. The July heat was scorching hot but Brooke and Vanessa didn’t care, they were just happy that they got to have some time to themselves away from New York where it seemed like everybody knew who they were. 

Ever since Thanksgiving, Vanessa and Brooke had been together and while in typical Brooke and Vanessa fashion, they had their fair share of arguments, they also had never been happier. They decided in February when the temperature in New York was still freezing cold that they were going to spend their Summer vacationing around Europe before the Summer ended.

Vanessa had been accepted into Columbia University and was happy that she would still be close to home so that she wouldn’t have to be separated from Brooke. The longest they had been away from each other was for two days when Vanessa went to visit her grandparents in California and they had barely survived that. Vanessa didn’t know how she thought running away from Brooke all of those months ago would have worked when realistically, she couldn’t go a day without talking to her girlfriend anymore. 

Brooke didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life yet, but what she did know was that college didn’t seem like the right path for her. The only reason that she graduated high school was because of all the help she got from Vanessa and also because their private school didn’t want students failing because it made them look “bad”, so they were known to bump up a few grades every now and then to save their reputation. But Brooke honesty didn’t care. She had a couple of passions in life and academics just wasn’t one of them. 

She did, however, love fashion and being able to watch Mrs Mateo grow her clothing company over the years had always been something that Brooke found fascinating. So fascinating, in fact, that she asked Vanessa’s mom if she could do an internship at her company and Mrs Mateo said yes to her immediately. After all, Brooke was the most featured person on Gossip Girl’s _Best Dressed List,_ she had to be doing something right. 

They had spent the previous week in Paris and had decided to go to Venice for a couple of days after that. It was there that they heard about being able to rent a yacht for a few days in the Mediterranean Sea and it sounded like absolute perfection to both of the girls. They woke up super early that morning and after breakfast, they had been diving into the sea and swimming for hours until they started to get hungry again. After lunch, they decided to relax for a while and sunbathe up on the deck and drink some wine. 

Vanessa swore that she had spent half of their vacation reminding Brooke to put sunscreen on and, when Brooke constantly forgot, had opted to start putting it on Brooke herself. Vanessa’s skin had gotten even more golden and Brooke thought she looked like a goddess. Brooke on the other hand was one step away from looking like a lobster if she didn’t keep reapplying her SPF. 

Lying on the deck of the yacht was extremely relaxing but Vanessa started to get restless after a while. She could hear both of their cell phones buzzing from the table they were on and all she wanted to do was read what was going on back home. Brooke had introduced a strict ‘no phone’ policy for their vacation, apart from one hour of designated phone time per day, and it was crushing Vanessa’s soul. She didn’t need her phone to have fun, being with Brooke was more than enough fun for her, but she hated feeling out of the loop. After their phones buzzing with approximately thirty more notifications, Brooke started to get frustrated. 

“Just look at it, Ness, it’s driving me crazy.” Vanessa didn’t need to be told twice and jumped off of her sun lounger and grabbed her phone. There were a ton of texts on her screen from Akeria and Silky, none of which made sense to her at first so she unlocked her phone and scrolled to the top of the conversation. 

“Oh my fucking God…,” Vanessa said in shock as she scrolled through the messages. Brooke sat up in her chair and looked at Vanessa. She scanned her facial expressions to make sure that whatever was happening wasn’t something horrific but it seemed that Vanessa had just heard some gossip. Brooke presumed it was a Gossip Girl blast about someone. “They know who Gossip Girl is!” 

“What?” Brooke asked in excitement. She didn’t think that they would ever find out who was behind the malicious site and she couldn’t wait to see who it is. 

“It’s Scarlet fucking Envy, you have got to be fucking kidding me!” Vanessa shrieked as she scrolled through her phone for more information. Brooke was genuinely shocked. Scarlet had always been so nice to them. She was always a regular guest at Vanessa’s annual sleepovers, she was someone you could have fun with if your parents dragged you to yet another boring charity function and she just genuinely seemed like a normal girl. Granted, she was always trying to get information from people but on the Upper East Side, everyone is like that. 

“So apparently the only reason it got revealed is because she’s dating Yvie and Yvie threatened to break up with her if she didn’t reveal herself. I never thought I’d be grateful to Yvie Oddly, this is crazy!” Vanessa said and Brooke couldn’t hold back anymore, she had to grab her phone and see all of the drama unfold for herself. 

Sure enough, there it all was in black and white on the Gossip Girl homepage. Scarlet had written exactly why she set up the site and while she had fun doing it, it was time it came to an end. The girls always had their theories of who it could be but those theories usually involved it being some loner who nobody knew…not one of the most popular girls in Manhattan. 

“Makes sense why there were barely any blasts about her on the site…” Brooke mumbled, still reading through the post, not wanting to miss anything.

“And even the ones about her weren’t that bad,” Brooke laughed in agreement and Vanessa let out a sigh of relief. “When you think about it, it’s really obvious, isn’t it?” Deep down, Vanessa was mad that she wasn’t the one who was able to reveal Gossip Girl’s identity. She had fantasised about doing it for years and now that’s been taken away from her. 

“V…it’s finally over.” Brooke said with a sense of calmness and Vanessa smiled in response.

“No one is gonna be taking pictures or following our every move now.” It was then that Vanessa realised she didn’t really care who revealed what Scarlet had been up to, all that matters is that it can’t go on any longer. It was finally over.

\---   
_Well darlings, it’s finally over. My time as Gossip Girl has come to an end. But let this be a lesson to you all: people are always watching. You may think nobody knows your dirty little secrets, but you’re wrong. Until next time._  
You know you love me,  
XOXO, Gossip Girl 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr: kikimateohytes


End file.
